London Irish

[JAB1987]

I believe that Cov's best aggregate home attendances over recent seasons would have been in 2024-25, when we had fifteen competitive home games, including both Tigers and Saints in the expanded Premiership Cup, drawing "full houses" at home as well as a relatively local home game against Nottingham. I am unsure as to whether the Championship clubs decided to withdraw from the Premiership Cup as a result of the increased size of the league, or if the Premiership clubs no longer wanted us.

[JAB1987]

Should read fourteen home games

[jblee]

Jblee

People have their own views. I have mine but others are at liberty to disagree.
....

I totally agree. That is why the second line of my post said "Give an alternative opinion by all means but don't insult other posters".

Don't get me wrong. I have a very thick skin and people can insult me as much as they like but if that is to be allowed then I should have the right to respond which of course would be very boring for everyone. Much better if people just respect others right to hold a different opinion without resorting to childish insults.

Have a good day!

[Rothoik]

It is good to try and keep some kind of etiquette otherwise you end up with the BBC HYS troll system and it just becomes a boring, pointless, slanging arena. I also think it is important to NOT have comment ratings, if you every venture onto some of the rugby and cricket boards at the BBC you see perfectly reasonable posts being given a thumbs down for no real apparent reason, other than perhaps to elicit a query and start the troll protocol.

[jblee]

It is good to try and keep some kind of etiquette otherwise you end up with the BBC HYS troll system and it just becomes a boring, pointless, slanging arena. I also think it is important to NOT have comment ratings, if you every venture onto some of the rugby and cricket boards at the BBC you see perfectly reasonable posts being given a thumbs down for no real apparent reason, other than perhaps to elicit a query and start the troll protocol.

Where's the thumbs up emoji when you need it ?

[Rothoik]

It is good to try and keep some kind of etiquette otherwise you end up with the BBC HYS troll system and it just becomes a boring, pointless, slanging arena. I also think it is important to NOT have comment ratings, if you every venture onto some of the rugby and cricket boards at the BBC you see perfectly reasonable posts being given a thumbs down for no real apparent reason, other than perhaps to elicit a query and start the troll protocol.

Where's the thumbs up emoji when you need it ?

There's always one!

[Southstand]

I think people should be free to express opinions here without others dismissing them as " petty prejudices". Give an alternative opinion by all means but don't insult other posters. If that is an unacceptable view to the moderators then just let me know and I will leave.

For the record, jblee I didn't dismiss your views as "petty prejudices" , I did , however describe them as such.
Sadly, you are not alone in holding such opinions.
if I might be allowed to misquote Hamlet ? "Methinks the lady doth protest too much"

This was initially a post about the aspirations of London Irish, into which you chose to post two of your opinions about my club, Worcester Warriors.
It's all too easy to blur opinions with facts but when we present them as such on open forums we shouldn't be too surprised if they are challenged.

My club entered the new Champ competition after being asked to apply by the RFU. We were accepted having satisfied all the entry criteria.
Every club we visited last season was happy with the interest we generated and the cash we spent in their clubhouses.

Other than the team name, the club has no connection, in personnel with the one that was asset stripped by criminals.
The nine thousand who turned up on day one of the season knew this. As did the business community of Worcester where it is estimated that the club's existence is worth over £4 mill annually to the city.

Overall the winner in Worcester has been Rugby and the teams return has given joy to thousands.

So against this you will have to forgive me if I consider continued jibes about my team as petty prejudice.

As for adhering to forum etiquette there is only one person accusing the other of childish insults.

I want to talk about Rugby. Let's leave our ego's at the door.

[Storty]

Bankrupted clubs getting parachuted back into the Champ is another rugby bug bear of mine. By all means start the club again in the regional leagues and work your way up but getting put straight into the second tier makes a mockery of this league and all those below.

I just don't get rugby's obsession with destroying the pyramid and getting the "biggest" clubs in a no relegation league.

In football massive clubs like Leeds, Leicester and Sunderland have spent time in the third tier as they've been totally mismanaged. Spurs nearly went down last year despite generating £500m of revenue.

On the flip side, Bournemouth have gone from the brink of being out the football league to thrashing former European champions the other week despite having by football standards a tinpot 10k stadium.

Why is the RFU desperate just to have established big clubs, bankrupt or not as the only ones at the top table? Why can't clubs build over time and get there? Ealing are clearly a prem level club, let them in. I've watched Saracens and Sale on TV and their grounds look awful and poorly attended, Ealing would probably a better TV experience than them anyway.

Another negative of this parachuting is teams aren't allowed to be relegated from the Champ. Cambridge have been destroyed after years of not being allowed to go back down, they're now on their way to Nat 2.

Apologies for the rant, but the complete lack of meritocoracy in rugby annoys me!

[tigerburnie]

Sadly money has ruined the game of rugby, it is now a business, where bums on seats and tv audiences dictate the rules. Money was wrecking the game before it went pro, it has just got worse, now the closed shop exists the money launderers and asset strippers will have a field day in the Premiership. I was born and raised in Leicester so the Tigers are my team, but I doubt any team will be any supporters team for much longer. Thank goodness for the National leagues where the money is less obvious.

[jblee]

I think people should be free to express opinions here without others dismissing them as " petty prejudices". Give an alternative opinion by all means but don't insult other posters. If that is an unacceptable view to the moderators then just let me know and I will leave.

For the record, jblee I didn't dismiss your views as "petty prejudices" , I did , however describe them as such.
Sadly, you are not alone in holding such opinions.
if I might be allowed to misquote Hamlet ? "Methinks the lady doth protest too much"

This was initially a post about the aspirations of London Irish, into which you chose to post two of your opinions about my club, Worcester Warriors.
It's all too easy to blur opinions with facts but when we present them as such on open forums we shouldn't be too surprised if they are challenged.

My club entered the new Champ competition after being asked to apply by the RFU. We were accepted having satisfied all the entry criteria.
Every club we visited last season was happy with the interest we generated and the cash we spent in their clubhouses.

Other than the team name, the club has no connection, in personnel with the one that was asset stripped by criminals.
The nine thousand who turned up on day one of the season knew this. As did the business community of Worcester where it is estimated that the club's existence is worth over £4 mill annually to the city.

Overall the winner in Worcester has been Rugby and the teams return has given joy to thousands.

So against this you will have to forgive me if I consider continued jibes about my team as petty prejudice.

As for adhering to forum etiquette there is only one person accusing the other of childish insults.

I want to talk about Rugby. Let's leave our ego's at the door.

For the record I chose to post opinions about Worcester in this thread because there are quite obvious similarities between what it seems LI wish to do and what your club did. I also posted opinions on a rugby discussion forum because we were discussing rugby.

You have your opinions and I have mine. We should both be free to post them without being insulted and being told that our opinions are "petty prejudices" which is quite clearly and obviously what you said.

Now in an attempt to end this I will say that I respect your right to hold your opinions although I disagree with many of them. Will you kindly reciprocate?