Registered Rugby Players 2003 - 2009?

[Jockstap]

I've been looking to see what the registered player tally was like for Ireland and was shocked to see the increase of players from 2003 to 2009 compared to other countries. If the figures are ligit we went from 53,500 players in 2003 to 114,627 players in 2009 while if you look through the IRB site every other team had an increase or decrease of about 10,000. If this is true the future of Irish rugby is looking not to shabby at all.
Here are the links

for 2003
http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/rwc2003.htm

for 2009
http://www.irb.com/unions/union=11000001/index.html

 

[Fa'atau82]

Well, Ireland has it's other gaelic sports so i guess you'd get players from there..?

 

[feicarsinn]

nah thats the funny thing, the standards of gaa and participation levels are increasing dramatically. In fact thats why my own Wicklow has been suffering so much as of late, a lack of development. Anyway rugby has been a very trendy sport in Ireland in the last few years so I guess it's no surprise.

 

[shazbooger]

The IRFU guys must be shelling out huge bonues to each other over this.

Good news though. Another case for keeping Connaght alive and well.

 

[Jockstap]

Its great news we've doubled the number of players in 6 years, the other half probably coming from Munster. Munster is kind of like a mini New Zealand in that every other top 10 Team in the Rankings get there players from Upper Class Schools while in New Zealand, South Africa everybody plays, Munster follows the same trend, the players get to the top from merit, Its probably why they're the Best team in Europe and I'd wager it will stay that way for a long time to come. Anyways I'd expect the Quality of Irish Rugby to only get better in the next 10 years with all this new talent to pick from.