This Isn't Rugby Country

1st Nov 2010

This Isn't Rugby Country

Like all sports that matter, we like our rugby in the People's Republic but the pompous declaration by a Dublin beer company that Cork is solely "rugby country" is tantamount to a declaration of war and an insult to Cork's wide and varied sporting legacy.

Yes, Cork has provided the backbone of Irish and Munster rugby teams for years and remained silent while Limerick disingenuously publicises itself as the so-called "home of Munster rugby".

For Corkonians it has always been charitable indifference. "Sure, let Limerick off", they say. The poor feckers have nothing else to celebrate except the arrest of a drug baron and a wedding that didn't result in a riot.

Mocking Cork's sporting legacy from within the heart of the city

Cork Con will continue, as they have done for the last three years, to plunder every other Irish club and remain fastened to the league title but that doesn't mean Cork is rugby country.

Look at Munster scrum half Tomás O'Leary - the GAA has produced magnificent talents for Irish rugby but it never happens the other way round - even long before the game went professional.

Rugby country? Seems like the Dubs switched off once they were beaten by the Cork footballers.

While the Dublin brewery was busy concocting its publicity for Arthur's Day and the disgraceful scenes of national embarrassment it provoked around the Pale, Cork's senior footballers were winning the All-Ireland title.

Something like thirty million people turned out to see Conor Counihan's troops arrive home. That's at least twice the unofficial capacity of Pairc Úi Chaoimh. Rugby country?

If anything these days, Cork is football country. Especially while Sam Maguire is spending a year dividing his time between Graham Canty's outdoor sauna and Conor Counihan's jacuzzi.

This advertising campaign is a direct insult to Corkonians who love drinking locally produced stout and beer and who love all sports - hurling, football, soccer, basketball and rugby. This attempt to divide Corkonians or to brand Cork as an oval ball county provides evidence of the Dublin brewery's agenda for the Rebel County.

They can try all they want but we won't be havin' that, feen.