URC 2022/2023 Round 11

[Tooting Carmen]

Great results for Scarlets, But man that is Damning for the Dragons. Basically the whole second half with a man advantage and not only no points scored, but conceding 20 points in the process. Was there anything in terms of injuries that helped to justify not really pitching up that half? Or did Scarlets just play unbelievably well?

Dragons are missing their two first-choice scrum-halves (Rhodri Williams and Gonzalo Bertranou) and I think they have a few injuries elsewhere too. That said, the Scarlets have a fairly extensive injury list themselves, so I don't think that is the reason. No, it was the fact that Scarlets got their walls to the back and played with fluency. (As it happens, their only other league win this season was also with 14 men for part of the match, against Zebre).

 

[Tooting Carmen]

That's two notable wins against this season's form book: Munster at Ulster and Ospreys at Cardiff.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64142206

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Celtic symphony is about going to a football match, the media attention its garnered lately is ******* ridiculous.

 

[Gavin]

Celtic symphony is about going to a football match, the media attention its garnered lately is ******* ridiculous.

Blame that on the mad Loyalists north of the border who strive to cause division.

It's a mad catchy tune though

 

[Groundhog]

Woah, I just respected Leinster for the first time in my life. In terms of most offensive sounds at a Leinster match it's way down the list. The sound of a day tripper sat one tow behind, who works as a middle manager in KPMG who talks about work throughout the entire match definitely takes the cake

 

[saulan]

Definitely think we are lined up to beat the attendance record this weekend after that Edinburgh attendance of >25k. Leinster’s stadium is close to sold out online, as is Ulsters, the SA games will get similar attendances to last week, the Cardiff game has less than 500 seats remaining (can’t check Scarlets because you need to sign up) and then Zebre can’t really hold much (5k).

So trying to estimate it:
Edinburgh: 26k (guesstimate, saw an article say more than 25k attendance, but not the official number)
Zebre: 3k (assume limited attendance since performing poorly)
Sharks: 26k (potential to over perform here, as Bulls is a bigger clash than the Lions)
Stormers: 30k (Potential to under perform here, see point above on Bulls/Lions)
Cardiff: 12k
Scarlets: 8k
Ulster: 16k
Leinster: 17k
Total: 138k

Turns out I was only really dramatically off with the Stormers game:

This gets you to 123k, which beats the previous record of 121k from 2017/18.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Woah, I just respected Leinster for the first time in my life. In terms of most offensive sounds at a Leinster match it's way down the list. The sound of a day tripper sat one tow behind, who works as a middle manager in KPMG who talks about work throughout the entire match definitely takes the cake

"I'm at Christmas Dinner in Wexford and they're only talking about Farming, Politics and GAA, I just can't contribute like". When I overheard that I knew it was going to inspire any player who heard it and Jordan Larmour was close by.

 

[DragonCraig45]

Brilliant attendances. But as for my teams game, Blew it.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Turns out I was only really dramatically off with the Stormers game:
View attachment 15750
This gets you to 123k, which beats the previous record of 121k from 2017/18.

The South Africans bumped it up. Also worrying is how the Scottish derby had a bigger attendance than the two Welsh ones combined.

 

[saulan]

The South Africans bumped it up. Also worrying is how the Scottish derby had a bigger attendance than the two Welsh ones combined.

The Scarlets game was at about 60% attendance, so not ideal with a small stadium. Cardiff was sold out though - cant fit more than the stadium capacity.

 

[Bluemoon]

The South Africans bumped it up. Also worrying is how the Scottish derby had a bigger attendance than the two Welsh ones combined.

I think there has to be some understanding about the context of these attendances. Wales have 4 pro teams and less population than Scotland, and a lot less than Ireland, SA and Italy.

12,000 at a game in Wales is good given the area covered, imagine there will be 10,000 for the scarlets next week as well. Cardiff has a population of 362,000, around 50,000 of those are students and there is a lot of competition for sport here. There are very well supported football and ice hockey teams, just to name two.

I don’t imagine the scarlets and ospreys would consider the dragons as a big derby either, so that turnout for the scarlets game isn’t too bad.

I think it’s more of a case of imagine what might be possible in terms of growth here if there were fewer issues with governance and club politics.

Cardiffrfcfans do some handy analysis around attendances for a lot of teams if anyone is interested:
https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/5559.php?clubID=1