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Supporting your Team & Changing Allegience

1) Chiefs / Waikato :the team from the region I used to life and altho they had their ups and downs I just love those teams.
2) AB's: my second home nation and as Belgium is still an emerging country I stick with the bests ;)

Otherwise I tend to follow European clubs just as I like to follow some players.
 
I grew up in South-East London in a family with no rugby tradition. When I got seriously into rugby, after university, and started looking for a top quality pro outfit to follow, I realised there was no English team I felt a strong inclination to follow. All of London's rugby clubs were very difficult to get to from where I lived and, besides, I was playing most Saturdays.

I decided to follow a Pro 12 team, largely due to thinking that if I was going to support a team with nothing to do with me, they might as well be foreign so I learned more as a result. I picked Ulster due to liking the Irish more than the Scots and Welsh, and Ulster made more sense as they were neither too good or too ****; the sense of potential unfulfilled and eternal ****-uppery was something I was used to as a sports fan. Plus I'd liked the Ulstermen I'd met and Stephen Ferris and the 19 year old Nevin Spence looked brill so done. I'd follow Ulster and add a bit of colour to things. I ended up supporting them far more seriously than I'd ever meant to, partly due to Ulster matches always being on TV on a Friday night when I could watch them, partly due to falling in with a vociferious Ulster community online.

I'll be the first to say its a pretty weird way to get to supporting a team, but I am now an Ulster fan forever.
 
Born and bred in Munster. Played and learnt game with club in Munster. Worked with Munster. And it helps we good
 


Toulouse oh Toulouse oooh Toulouussse

and Big E is the biggest turn-coat I've ever known
 
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Edinburgh because i was born in edinburgh and live there most my live so it make its a little obvious.
 
Leinster, all of the above. All of my family are from Ulster but none of them have followed rugby until recently so it only really affected my Gaelic Football allegiances.
 
Toulouse oh Toulouse oooh Toulouussse

and Big E is the biggest turn-coat I've ever known

not my fault, I was born a hybrid in every possible acceptation of the term. Centaurs and gryphons are amateurs compared to me. I must say though, I'm pretty comfortable being a faceless goblin. :p And you should be thankful the winds have kept me in Toulouse for a while now, who knows, I could go SF or CO at any point. Or even Toulon, I am after all a Varois in a way, you see RCT stickers on the backs of cars here, it's pretty cool.

Oh more about this thread though, my grandpa's from that Toulouse area there, but he's a pathetic man with every possible human vice I have tremendous difficulty accepting the existence of, sooo...
 
Born in Durban, moved to Canada when I was about 8. Support the Sharks, but yeah I agree that Sharks fans have a pretty bad rep. Cheetahs are my second favourite team but I was actually rooting for the Lions a few times this season I really like Boshoff, Whiteley and their pack.
 
Grew up in and around Cardiff, so naturally Cardiff Blues ended up being my team when I properly got into club rugby. However, my parents come from much further west, slap bang between Ospreys and Scarlets territory so I've developed a support for pretty much all the Welsh regions. My football supporting mates (mostly either Cardiff City or Swansea City) are usually baffled by my mentality of "As long as the Welsh team wins" as they're all the exact opposite, and watch games actively wanting Swansea/Cardiff to lose.
 
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Big ulster fan simply because i was born and raised there. However outside of domestic allegence, im a big fan of the chiefs in the s15. Main reason was because ive played wing my whole rugby life and when i first seen them play they had fantastic wingers so i admired them and became a big supporter
 
Leicester tigers are the only team I've supported as I'm from the midlands and all of my rugby supporting family supports tigers too . I have a soft spot for quins too due to their recent blooding of large amounts of England players . Martin Johnson was also my favourite player I was around 12 when he became captain of England and I was totally in awe of his passion and leadership skills . Best captain ever imo
 
Well, I started watching pro rugby last year. I'll be honest, I just liked Leicester's kit and it stuck. No other reason, no connection to any particular part of England. Oh, I did make sure they weren't a ****ty team, I've been a Leafs fan for far too long to put up with more of that. Didn't really mean to pick the team with the most ***les, but the more I watched them the more I liked them. Especially Toby Flood, too bad he's leaving. Over the course of the season I started following Bath and Quins too as back up teams. Dislike Saints, try as I might I can't hate Sarries so they get respect as a tough opponent and good club.

Mom has a friend in Glasgow so I support them, also I support Scotland in the 6 nations for the same reason. My family is (like two generations ago) from all over the UK and Ireland so not a lot to go off. Tried getting into super rugby but none of them did much for me. Haven't been able to grasp much identity or anything from them. Heck the NZ teams even all have the same sponsors and jerseys almost, it's like watching house league. So I just cheer for the Aussie teams, NZ are too good so no fun to support and dislike SA for some reason.
 
At the end of the day I am a rugby fan, and like to support players even if I dislike their club.

^This. Love to be impressed with quality and skill, whichever club they play for.

But overall, I am an avid Wasps fan. Because as a kid, my brother supported Tigers, I found this strange as we live in Kent. So I chose the club nearest to me, Wasps.

I do have a soft soft for Quins too, as my wife supports them. But Wasps always feels more comfortable and enjoyable to watch at Adams Park. Wasps supporters are more "pie and pint" whereas Quins supporters are more "blazer and wine". And so Wasps suits me just fine.

I also love to support Toulouse in the Top 14, as I am a fan of the traditional and unpredictable French flair rugby, which Toulouse seem to embody.

And finally, in Super 15, I am definitely a Tahs supporters. I do love the South African powerhouse rugby, and the clinical rugby from NZ, but Aussie rugby can be the most entertaining. Plus I feel more for the chilled out Aussie approach to life, NZ get too serious.

In regards to changing support: I can't! My chosen club is my chosen personal investment, loyalty is very important in the make up of a fan. To be a fan means that you always support, good times and bad times, and always, always believe and hope for the win! Otherwise what is point of being a fan?
 
I love how seriously everybody's taking this.

Well for me I'm as much a Toulouse fan as I am of any other Top 14 team or even Premiership, provided the others do shiit I like...I'm what you would call in our modern jargon a "turncoat" extraordinaire. I'm ssssspineless, oh so odorless the stench is unbearable. I'm so transparent I make invisible things that don't exist jealous. I make ocean mollusks like jellyfish look like Rocco Siffredi's penis mid-way through a hardcore, particularly depraved anal scene. I don't go both ways, I go all ways. In fact the concept of a "way" really is quite alien to me all matters thought through...I'm this disgusting, abject matter that compliments all things fecal and mucosal, a level below the standard notion of 'discharge', I am neither secretion nor parasitic, I just can't care for a club or a country, my flag is whichever the wind remotely brings me before and I don't have a second thought about it. Principles are pure science-fiction to me and a funny utopic belief. You say loyalty, I say staleness. You say fidelity I say pish posh boring let's change channels.
I'm so repugnant they wouldn't know where to classify me along with the Draculas, Frankenstein monsters or ghouls.

So that's that...anybody hungry ? No ? Anyone ??

Great post Big E. Bravo :bravo:. We'll make you an honorary fan for life :)
 
Great post Big E. Bravo :bravo:. We'll make you an honorary fan for life :)

you know, you really shouldn't be encouraging me like that...and yeah, maybe I'll get bored of being bored of supporting only one team one day, who knows...
 
Guess I should probably answer my own question.

Wasps fan because my local club in East London when I was growing up was a feeder club for Wasps and a few of us ended up in their youth system (this is early 90's), and ever since then coupled with the fact a few of my friends have played pro for them I've just felt a bit an attachment to them.

Similarly I like Stade Francais because I lived about 5mins walk from the ground when I first landed in Paris and again I have a couple of friends who played for them for the first couple of years I was in France.

Country? Well born and grew up in England so support, uhm, England. My Family is actually Scottish so I follow their results closely – we're 1st Generation so my brother and sister who were both born and grew up in London will support Scotland over England. They and my dad will literally support anyone but England, which really grips my sh*t. :) I love calling my dad the day after a decent England performance and trolling him into admitting England actually are a decent team (though he can never bring himself to say they played well).

Like everyone though I like good teams that play good rugby so outside of wanting Wasps to do well I'll follow whomever is a playing the rugby I enjoy most.
 
Despite being an Aucklander, when I started watching Super Rugby in 2012 I was actually a Crusaders supporter... In my defence, the Blues were a difficult team to support in 2012! I warmed up to them as I attended more games in Eden Park.
 
First and foremost I'm a ABs fan...and a Crusaders/Canterbury fan. Why? Well...mostly because those were the teams that introduced me to the game. Now in there were also the Wallabies, and I remember being a bit of a Wallabies fan in the early days. However, I think I became a kiwi fan because of sheer exposure - there was the Tri-Nations, Super 12 (at the time) rugby, and the provincial competition (NPC/ITM). I got to know the NZ players much quicker than any of the other teams, and since so many Crusaders were also ABs, it was a given that the Crusaders would top the list of my favorite teams.

Can I change loyalties? Sure...but not likely. I just love the spirit of the NZ game, I still find it easier to follow the kiwi teams.

That said, I do sometimes cheer on an underdog team just because I feel they deserve a win. For instance, I would not be unhappy if Argentina pulled off a surprise win against the ABs. Sure, I'd prefer if they beat SA or Aus, but I wouldn't pout if they beat 'my' team, mostly because I see such a win as good for the game overall, and in the end I think I love the game in general more than just a single team.



das
 
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I was born in Whangarei(NZ) so had supported Northland for years and years, since I was like 5, I moved to the Waikato at about 15 and still supported Northland for the next 10 years over the Waikato.

After being in the Waikato for 10 years I swapped allegiances as it was hard to support a team I could hardly ever watch play. Still support Northland but not as my #1 team.

Chiefs fan at super 15 level and always have been due to living in the catchment when they started.

International level is AB's all the way.

I support Ireland and Wales from the NH, based on the kiwi connection.
 
Pretty simple for me - I support where I'm from pure and simple. So it's the Waratahs in Union and The Roosters in League. That said, I'm a bit of an oddity as a League fan, because my second team are Souths, who most Roosters fans loath and are loathed in equal measure by Souths fans. That's largely because I grew up supporting the Roosters, but when I played it was with Souths Juniors.
 

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