IRELAND meet England at Lansdowne Road in the International Championship on Saturday. Matches between the two countries have graced the rugby calendar since 1875.
February 15th is a date of immense significance in the history of Irish rugby - it marks the anniversary of Ireland's first international encounter in 1875.
That afternoon 122 years ago, Ireland played England at the Oval in Kennington south London, a ground more closely associated with cricket than rugby.
By coincidence it was also on a cricket ground that Ireland played a home international for the first time. That was also against England and took place at the Leinster Cricket grounds in Rathmines, on December 13th, also in 1875. The rent paid for the use of the ground was £10.
The price of admission was one shilling and women were admitted free. Contemporary reports record that thousands turned up for the match. It seems that many got into the ground free as the gate receipts were £22. 9s. With commendable generosity the Leinster Cricket Club reduced the agreed rent from £10, to £7. 10s. At the end of the season the union showed a credit balance of £4. 17s. 2d.
That was all before the days of television and corporate hospitality. If you did not go to the match you had to wait for the daily newspapers for the result. Mind you there were 35 daily newspapers published in Ireland at that time. In so far as I can ascertain only four of them had representatives at the match. Next Saturday 120 journalists will be in Lansdowne Road as well as big crews of television and radio personnel.
Changed times indeed, and as well as the thoughts of the reporters and the commentators from the radio and television the public now have an extra treat in store, if that is the right word.
In addition to the big match fees and contract payments internationals now receive, a new industry has grown up for some internationals. Players are scarcely off the pitch after the match before they are rushing to their ghost writers to convey their thoughts on the match. Now it is becoming a regular feature to get requests from some newspapers for press tickets for the reporters who are ghosting the "stars". Not alone that, but the enquiries have come already from two British newspapers as to what arrangements are in hand for the ghost writers to get access to the English players immediately after the match. That is international rugby today, the more they get the more they want. Rugby is becoming more a business than a sport by the day especially at international level. It is all vastly different from the days at the Oval and Rathmines.
Indeed it is all a long way removed from the days of innocence of the not so long ago. There was a time when it was said that if you want to get ahead get a cap. It was deemed the passport to a good job and security. Now it seems if you want to get ahead get an agent. Most internationals, and in my experience all the Irish players are extremely co-operative, but if you want to speak to some players across channel you must now go through their agents. That was my experience last week with regard to one international. That I am not prepared to do. Then you have international team captains who are contracted to newspapers and other outlets. They will attend post match press conferences and dish out a load of old cliche ridden rubbish, and to hell with the responsibility to the game and to the office they hold.
Next Saturday a crowd of just under 50,000, will be in Lansdowne Road to see the latest episode in the ongoing rivalry between Ireland and England and the gate receipts will come to over £2 million. Such is the appeal of the match that, if the IRFU had the space available, there would be no trouble selling another 50,000 tickets. The black market which never ceases to cash in and invariably thrives on the big sporting occasion, is a hive of activity. But there is a new dimension in recent years to the clamour for tickets and the inflated prices that people are prepared to pay for them.
Corporate hospitality, the triumph of money over principle, has become big business, not just may I add relative to rugby internationals but to most big sporting events. Tickets for the match next Saturday are changing hands for hundreds of pounds each. One outlet in England is offering £500 for a stand ticket. Advertisements are appearing in newspapers. Sadly the reality is that match tickets are going to big business at the cost of genuine supporters and regrettably clubs are raising considerable sums of money by selling some of their ticket allocation to the corporate sector and some of their members are, consequently, unable to go to the match. Clubs say they need the money, but surely they need their members.
The official corporate hospitality for Ireland's home matches is centred on the back pitch at Lansdowne Road and is run in conjunction with and the full co operation of the IRFU. But quite a number of other corporate hospitality functions also take place outside the confines of the ground. In order to get tickets for the matches, the people who run those corporate functions have to pay vastly inflated prices. Those who supply such tickets do the game a great disservice. All that kind of activity is now a very regrettable part of the international rugby occasion. Rugby internationals have always had a very important and appealing social aspect and long may that remain, old friends, long standing rugby supporters and old rivals meeting again. They are being sacrificed to the corporate sector so that clients can be entertained irrespective of the cost of the tickets and genuine rugby supporters cannot get tickets. But then money and morality have never been comfortable or compatible bedfellows.
But despite the changes in elements of the social fabric and some attitudes, the match next Saturday promises to be a very special and great occasion. The encounters against England have always had a unique appeal compared to the other matches. Maybe, at least in part, the reasons for that are rooted in our social and political history. But the annual Ireland England match has a very special place in the rugby calendar. Most Irish followers look forward to and want to see this match most of all. Likewise thousands of England supporters make the trip to Dublin every second year and many will say that it is the away trip they enjoy most of all. Rugby internationals between Ireland and England represent the second oldest pairing in the game being predated only by England Scotland, the first of which took place in 1871. The match next Saturday will be the 110th meeting between the countries. England are Ireland's oldest opponents and for all the rivalry there has always been a special affinity between the two countries in the rugby context. It was badly strained by events during the summer, but those problems were overcome and happily the game and the rivalry go on. Rugby has been enriched by these annual encounters, let us hope the match next Saturday will add another worthy chapter to a splendid history.
