Best & Worst Atmosphere You've Experienced at a Rugby Match

[RWC2011Fan]

Best is easily South Africa vs. Fiji in Wellington at the 2011 World Cup. Game was nothing like the one in Marseille four years previously but it must've been just as colourful and noisy. Helped that the weather was great as well.

Worst is probably Wellington Lions vs. Auckland this year. Despite being a semi-final, it was the usual ****-poor crowd and there were loads of kids. Didn't help that it was windy as hell, but I will admit the crowd did get pretty vocal during the tries.

 

[Teh Mite]

Best -

Saints v Munster at Franklins Gardens, HEC round 1 (2009)

Both sets of fans in great voice, the Munster lot being their usual travelling bunch (i.e. Great, in stark contrast to the majority in Limerick who are marred by an overwhelming bunch of dicks) and Saints going in as ravenous underdogs. Electric throughout and a great party afterwards.

Worst -

Tigers v Saints at Welford Rd, Premership Semi (2011)

Tigers fans are a bunch of *****. Horrible, aggressive, cowardly, antagonistic little ***** more akin to a soccer crowd.

 

[big ginger 8]

Best Ireland vs England 2010 and Leinster vs Clermont 2010 Fever in the Aviva

Worst well there's nothing like a Leinster Aironi/Zebre matche on a cold rainy February night to liven the crowd up.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Best: Leinster - Munster '09
Worst: Ireland - Scotland '10 Croke Park was dead that day.

 

[lynam1104]

Best Leinster V Toulouse HC Semi final 2011

Fantastic atmosphere and a absolutely excellent game of rugby.

Worst

Aus V England 2010 Pert

Sh*tty game, sh*tty crowed also in a cricket stadium so I was about 30 meters from the pitch.

 

[Conal]

Ireland England at croke park was just such a great atmosphere i loved it,

however surprisingly the day Leeds beat Worcester on the penultimate game of the season to stay in the premiership in 2010 was great,

worst game take your pick on any of ulsters dark days of the 7/8 season
most likely the home defeat to Gloucester

 

[Draggs]

Wales v Scotland, 2010, for best and worst.

 

[Groundhog]

Best atmospheres generally whenever Ireland play England, theres always a buzz from both sides, but the match in Croke Park was unbelievable, with a big man like John Hayes crying for the anthems.
As for worst, I'm of the opinion that the high ticket prices for the Aviva Stadium kills atmosphere as the ground just looks empty and there's not enough ****** people to start chants. Couple of years back they sold so little that they handed out tickets in our school for free to Ireland Tonga or something like that, and it was shocking. No crowd, big stadium, no atmosphere.

 

[Peat]

Ulster vs Embra, the HEC semi-final this year. Utterly electric, just built all day.

Tolouse vs Biarritz HEC final very close second.

Worse... Ulster vs Munster, Luke Marshall's debut but a very inept Ulster performance just killed the crowd. Think it was my first Ulster game as well. Horrible day too, thought I was going to drown just walking around Belfast that day.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Ulster vs Embra, the HEC semi-final this year. Utterly electric, just built all day.

Tolouse vs Biarritz HEC final very close second.

Worse... Ulster vs Munster, Luke Marshall's debut but a very inept Ulster performance just killed the crowd. Think it was my first Ulster game as well. Horrible day too, thought I was going to drown just walking around Belfast that day.

That was a grew day. We were almost in the very first row and beside a group of ****** Embra fans who were abuing a friend, great.

 

[dudeabides]

Best USA v Italy in Houston, TX last summer, biggest crowd I've been in and half of it seemed to be at the pub next door before it started. Even though it was a huge defeat, the atmosphere was the best.

Worst, if any level is tolerated, I went to a college match at the University of West Florida with literally 5 people in the crowd with free admission. And the school at the time had an undefeated record without surrendering a point in 4 division matches.

 

[nickdnz]

USA v Australia 2011 was pretty amazing - probably the best atmosphere I've experienced. The crowd was fanatic - for a game which was more or less a foregone conclusion, every one was going pretty mental. Stadium a mix of 40% Australian, 10% Americans and 50% people who wanted to watch Australia lose - and thus for a day became foreign patriots.

Felt sorry for poor Quade Cooper mind you.

Worst for me was NZ v Canada 2011. The crowd was pretty good - but on a personal level I didn't enjoy it so much. I paid $250 for my 'Diamond' ticket (which for my poor student self is an awful lot of eating mac n' cheese and 2 minute noodles to save up) - to sit 3m from the bronze seats. That got me ******. To make it worst I sat next to a very large Canadian women and her family - who didn't know anything about rugby (said she didn't even especially like or watch it - which rubs salt into the wound after paying that price for my ticket) but felt the need to be as vocal as possible. Nothing against Canadian's usually - but at the time I felt like driving a hockey puck through her teeth. So that game was in part ruined - epitomized by Zac Guildford scoring 4 tries...

 

[thomond2006]

Best -

Saints v Munster at Franklins Gardens, HEC round 1 (2009)

Both sets of fans in great voice, the Munster lot being their usual travelling bunch (i.e. Great, in stark contrast to the majority in Limerick who are marred by an overwhelming bunch of dicks) and Saints going in as ravenous underdogs. Electric throughout and a great party afterwards.

Worst -

Tigers v Saints at Welford Rd, Premership Semi (2011)

Tigers fans are a bunch of *****. Horrible, aggressive, cowardly, antagonistic little ***** more akin to a soccer crowd.

Care to elaborate?

Best: Was at Toulon v Munster in 2011, Heineken Cup. Munster got hockeyed but the atmosphere was something else.

Worst: Any number of dull Rabo fixtures at Thomond Park. Crowd rarely gets into them.

 

[lucky number 7]

 

[Big Ewis]

Best: 1995 RWC Final. It was the first time of course NZ and SA would meet at such a high level with such stakes. The crowd was surprisingly supportive of both sides, very fair with one team despite being for the other. Nobody ever scored a try as we all know, and that's a shame, but the atmosphere was just incredible !!...






































Worst: I've never been to a Rugby match in my life. I live in Qatar.

 

[lucky number 7]

christ it's easy to forget how damn good O'Gara was in his prime...

 

[Feicarsinn]

christ it's easy to forget how damn good David Wallace was in his prime...

Ftfy.


Ireland games is Croke Park were usually ****. Depends what you mean by best atmosphere really. The RDS is usually pretty relaxed, which while not overly passionate is pretty enjoyable. Leinster Munster games are usually decent banter.

 

[Teh Mite]

Care to elaborate?

2 fat ***** in myles breen bar who thought picking a fight with the first Englishman they see, who happens to be having a **** at the time, over "that'll get you back for 300 years" taints an opinion of a place. A few pricks in the stadium too.

A minority of idiots, but enough.

 

[thomond2006]

2 fat ***** in myles breen bar who thought picking a fight with the first Englishman they see, who happens to be having a **** at the time, over "that'll get you back for 300 years" taints an opinion of a place. A few pricks in the stadium too.

A minority of idiots, but enough.

Sorry to hear that happened to you. That doesn't represent the majority of fans who enjoy mingling with any away support.

 

[BZHopenside]

Best: Canada v. Georgia 2012 at Swangard Stadium. Packed stadium, lots of support, and I was right behind the uprights where most of the tries were scored.

Worst: Saracens v. Racing Metro H-Cup 2010. 0 degrees C with snow flakes the size of golf balls coming into the stands sideways. The game was bad, and the stands were half empty. Those who were there were just trying to stay warm.
I still had fun, as it was my first and only pro game.