Ireland National Rugby Tickets

Ireland National Rugby
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland both combinable represents The Ireland rugby union team. It is a popular sport throughout Ireland although the dominant one only in limited geographical areas.

Ireland competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and in the Rugby World Cup every four years where they have been eliminated at the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions. They also form a quarter of the British and Irish Lions.

Eight former Ireland players have earned induction into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. Historically, Ireland has been the least successful of the rugby union home nations, with the fewest number of Six Nations Championships and Grand Slams.

Ireland has also been regular winners of the wooden spoon in the Six Nations Championship and its predecessor tournaments.

However, Irish rugby union is widely acknowledged to have made the transition to professionalism more successfully than other middle-ranking rugby powers.

For the first time, Ireland followed the Welsh model of using seven backs. Victory over England at Blackheath, Ireland won back-to-back matches for the first time. Ireland went on to beat Wales in Belfast and win the Triple Crown for the first time.

Rugby was primarily a game for the Protestant middle class, the only Catholic in Edmund Forrest?s team was Tom Crean. Of the eighteen players used in the three games, thirteen were from three Dublin clubs and the remaining five were from Ulster.

They went on to win the Home international championship twice more before the old century was out, so that by 1900 all four of the Home Unions had tasted success at a game that was growing in popularity with players and spectators.

Such was the level of interest in the visit of the first All Blacks team to Dublin that the IRFU made the match the first all-ticket rugby international in history.

Ireland played only seven forwards, copying the then New Zealand method of playing a ?rover?. The game ended New Zealand 15 Ireland 0. On March 20, 1909, Ireland played France for the first time, beating those 19-8.

This was Ireland?s biggest victory in international rugby at that time. Ireland with seven new caps were overwhelmed by a record margin of 38-0, still a record loss to South Africa who scored 10 tries. After that Ireland went into their final Five Nations match unbeaten.

Ireland again came close to a grand slam when their sole loss was an 8-6 defeat by England. Ireland has competed at every Rugby World Cup since the tournament was first held in Australia and New Zealand.

The furthest Ireland have progressed at any World Cup has been to the quarter-finals. After a loss to Wales, Ireland finished second in their pool but was then knocked out by Australia in their quarter final in Sydney. Ireland again lost only the one match in pool play.

They currently lie in eighth position after a disappointing 2008 Six Nations campaign, in which they finished fourth. Shortly after the end of the Six Nations, Coach Eddie O?Sullivan resigned his position.

They started in the so-called ?Group of death?. Their abysmal performance against Namibia in their opening game on September 9 resulted in a laboured 32-17 win.

Entering their last group match against Argentina, needing four tries to secure a bonus point without allowing Argentina anything, Ireland were defeated clinically by 30 points to 15. This brought their disappointing 2007 World Cup to an end.