A comment by Lischoux...

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Fixey
Not sure this is the right place for this thread but it follows on from something Lischoux said near the end of the "Did Jan Wait" thread.. His comments where around the German media and how they treat there sports stars.....
Got me thinking......is my countries media, or indeed the public any better? or many other countries for that matter. In my county (New Zealand) we are pationate about our sport beyond belief. We love our sports stars and we support them through thick and thin.....almost.....there are 2 sports that are special to us, Cricket, which we are not terribly good at, and rugby, which we are the best at bar none (GO ON YOU AUSSIES AND POMS< ARGUE I DARE YA 😉 ) our media take these poor guys apart with anything other than a win. We lost the America's cup early last year and we sobbed for weeks, we lost the rugby world cup late last year and bloody near declared a national day of mourning. The coach got sacked and the media and the public went to town on the team like nothing else. It is said in New Zealand to be Prime Minister is good, to be an ALL BLACK (National Rugby Team) is to be a God. the minute a player has a sub par game, or the team loose, thats it, they are [censored]......that sums up my county and its attitude towards its sportsman, are yours any better?
Remember what LA said in the TDF in 2000? You can win 10 TDF's but if you dont win the olympic's the american public will say "you cant be good, couldnt even win the olympics"

NZ and rugby are synonymous and yes, I've heard that the media pressure on your rugby players is massive.
And yes, when the All Blacks lose - it is treated as a national disaster.
(The 1978 All Blacks came to Europe and won 21 of the 22 matches - Mouries All Blacks lost one match on that tour - to Ireland's provincial team, Munster.
That victory by Munster is legendary here - so much so, that even
a theatrical play has been written about it !).
Here in Ireland, we too are sport mad.

However, unlike say Britain, Italy or Spain we don't have a tabloid
culture of journalism and I think this is the relevant point.
Tabloid/Papparazzi media make the life of sports people and so-called celebrities, hell.

In this country, our world class athletes are honoured, I am happy to say.
Sean Kelly/Stephen Roche are treated with the utmost respect.
Sean Kelly in particular is held in very, very high public esteem.
Kelly's fame in this country was marked when he staged his final professional race of his career in Carrick On Suir.
That day, Merckx, Hinault, Fignon, Roche, De Vlamick, Criqilion,
to name but a few, came to cycle with him in his last race.
The President of Ireland came to the race as well.
That sort esteem is great.
Even when Sean 'failed' to win the TDF : he was never attacked
by our press.
We're mindful that we're a small country (like NZ) and that to produce athletes to compete at world level is an achievement in itself.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by limerickman
NZ and rugby are synonymous and yes, I've heard that the media pressure on your rugby players is massive.
And yes, when the All Blacks lose - it is treated as a national disaster.
(The 1978 All Blacks came to Europe and won 21 of the 22 matches - Mouries All Blacks lost one match on that tour - to Ireland's provincial team, Munster.
That victory by Munster is legendary here - so much so, that even
a theatrical play has been written about it !).
Here in Ireland, we too are sport mad.

However, unlike say Britain, Italy or Spain we don't have a tabloid
culture of journalism and I think this is the relevant point.
Tabloid/Papparazzi media make the life of sports people and so-called celebrities, hell.

In this country, our world class athletes are honoured, I am happy to say.
Sean Kelly/Stephen Roche are treated with the utmost respect.
Sean Kelly in particular is held in very, very high public esteem.
Kelly's fame in this country was marked when he staged his final professional race of his career in Carrick On Suir.
That day, Merckx, Hinault, Fignon, Roche, De Vlamick, Criqilion,
to name but a few, came to cycle with him in his last race.
The President of Ireland came to the race as well.
That sort esteem is great.
Even when Sean 'failed' to win the TDF : he was never attacked
by our press.
We're mindful that we're a small country (like NZ) and that to produce athletes to compete at world level is an achievement in itself.

Your athletes are truely lucky. and yes I have heard that the Irish are a pationate race and thought mabey you might not take loseing well, good to here its not so. I think the media can have a huge impact on how we treat our sportsman, mabey a few need to take a leaf from your media.

Oh, grats on beating the poms (at rugby) the other week. But lets not be mentioning that munster game again, ok?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Fixey
Oh, grats on beating the poms (at rugby) the other week. But lets not be mentioning that munster game again, ok?

Merci !

Indeed England world champions.
The problem with England is that they managed to win a tournament called the world championship.
But have they managed to play as world champions since winning ?
No !
Granted England were the most consistent team between 2002
and late 2003.
But they were well beaten by us - they struggled against Wales
yesterday.
If you're world champions, you've gotta play like WC's.

Limerick, I think it does rankle you a bit that we are the Rugby WC champs, tell the truth now.

Alright England have played like prats since but there's quite a few new players being brought in and they have to gel again. The trouble is they now have the expectations of the country on them to win everything they do, but they have to rebuild.

I can see similarities with Englands coach Sir Clive Woodward (mustn't forget the award) and Bjarne Riis, same sort of ethos. It wasn't that long back that the whole country looked down on rugby union, but now everyone wants to play it.

You're right about the press, the tabloids here report on absolutely anything, even to a sportsman's (yes I know I'm not PC but its gone too far anyway) dog being ill in the street. Well I ask you, who wants to know about a puking pooch. There are much more interesting things in life, (I'd love to know what at the moment as I've been seriously beancounting since Thursday afternoon, and its going to be an even longer night finishing reports and recommendations.)

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by hemplands
Limerick, I think it does rankle you a bit that we are the Rugby WC champs, tell the truth now.

It irks me and thats the truth, one good kicker behind 8 man mountains may have been rugby in the 60's bud, but now we just call it boring. I think England will be world champs similiar to the boks of 95, champs on paper only. Cant believe the clanger we dropped against Aussie, we put 50 points into them earlier that year and they didnt realy play any better.....
Any SA's able to comment on how the Bok's get treated? I know the Aussie media re-named the Wallabies the Wannabies after the tri-nations so I quess there media is like ours

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by hemplands
Limerick, I think it does rankle you a bit that we are the Rugby WC champs, tell the truth now.

Alright England have played like prats since but there's quite a few new players being brought in and they have to gel again. The trouble is they now have the expectations of the country on them to win everything they do, but they have to rebuild.

I can see similarities with Englands coach Sir Clive Woodward (mustn't forget the award) and Bjarne Riis, same sort of ethos. It wasn't that long back that the whole country looked down on rugby union, but now everyone wants to play it.

You're right about the press, the tabloids here report on absolutely anything, even to a sportsman's (yes I know I'm not PC but its gone too far anyway) dog being ill in the street. Well I ask you, who wants to know about a puking pooch. There are much more interesting things in life, (I'd love to know what at the moment as I've been seriously beancounting since Thursday afternoon, and its going to be an even longer night finishing reports and recommendations.)

H : I've no problem with England winning the World Cup - Honestly !
I really do think that England were the most consistent team between 2001-2003.
They beat SA, NZ, Australia and France at will : they were consistently champions of Europe too.
I wholeheartedly think that they were the best team during that era.
Jason Robinson, Johnno and Jonny could command their places in any World XV.
And I do think that it was important for a Northern Hemisphere team to win the World Cup.
And I was cheering for them in the final in Sydney (that's a first for an Irishman !!).

But, if a team are world champions - they need to play like world champions and since last october, England have looked out of sorts.
They're not the same team without Johnno and Jonny.
I would have thought now that they were world champions that the ought to play like champions.
But Ireland beat them in Twickers and Wales ran them very close on Saturday.
You can't be suggesting that either of England's performances
were of World Champion calibre ?
I think France have been a better team in the 2004 Six Nations.
We will win the Triple Crown against Scotland Nd I think England might well end up with nothing show for this years 6 nations.