What players/teams hooked you on Rugby

Simple enough really who were the players or teams who hooked you on rugby. Although I am a Munster fan for me the All Black, French and English teams of 2000-2003 absolutely hooked me on the game. Also the Lions of 2001 were massive. In recent years though its been the club teams who have won my attention compared to internationally.

I thought that Betsen, Magne, Harinordoquy was as good as it got in terms of backrows, George Smith, Jonah Lomu and Tana Umaga were iconic for me given their slightly outlandish appearances and Jonny Wilkinson was a demi god.

Who were the players that won you over.

I watched Phil Bennet playing at Stradey in 1976, still remember the buzz every time he got the ball, that did it for me.

My Dad & I went to a rugby school, that was the time when there wasn't much rugby on tele, in fact only 3 tv channels!!

David Humphreys in 1999. No peer in my mind.

Quite some distance...

Then Lomu in 1995, but that was really a knock-on from my brother who bought an All Blacks jersey on the back of him playing the way he was. The two of us used to just sit and watch him wreck teams in that World Cup. Awesome!

And, I don't know how old I was or what year it was or the players names, but the Fiji team that played in a Sevens tournament at Ravenhill (some time in the 90s?) All I remember is that I was very, very young and it's probably the first time I was at Ravenhill that I remember.

I think my Dad had taken me to Ravenhill before that, but I was too young to remember it properly.

Irvine, Gerber & Sella

Christian Cullen. Best runner with the ball I've ever seen. Plus Michael Jones, the best player I've ever seen.

Loved playing from the age of 6, but for watching it was England of the early 90s and a Leicester side:

John Liley/Tim Stimpson 15
Rory Underwood14
Stuart Potter/Craig Joiner 13
Will Greenwood 12
Tony Underwood/Leon Lloyd 11
Joel Stransky 10
Aadel Karddoni/Austin Healey 9
Dorian West 1
Richard Cockerill 2
Darren Garforth 3
Martin Johnson 4
Neil Fletcher 5
John Wells 6
Neil Back 7
Dean Richards 8

Somewhere around that team...

No specific game really. My Dad had played Prop for the local side so there was a family background and we used to chuck a ball about on the local beaches. Then, when I got to primary school (age 7) it was a natural thing to play - and I loved it. First BIG game was the Pembrokeshire v Monmouthshire 1970 Welsh Counties Final. The Neyland ground was packed and Pembrokeshire won - that sealed the deal I guess

Felipe Contempomi! Magician

Colin Mead, and the kicker then I think last name was Cook... read bout him practicing before a game by place kicking from the half way line barefoot.

Use to read bout the SA tours, before the ban, and the great battles of the boks and the all blacks. the wallabies was not a highly featured side in those days.

O'Driscoll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx-9BAGWINM&playnext=1&list=PLE08E3AD23AA6BA8F

I was hooked on playing rugby from an earlier age, but I never really watched it. It wasn't until my late teens that that changed, and Cullen was instumental in that, particularly with performances like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZrOMxJP9U

Other then the leinster and ireland obvious

I'd say leicster and munster.
I'm a bit weird in that i don't mind games that are 6 all once its a battle in the forwards, i love it when two packs just go all at it on a rainy day.
i remember a great game on sky years ago between bristol and leicster.

My favourite player for years has been julian white aswell he was always front and centre

Favourite player ever is Tim Horan. Was trying to model myself on him as a young inside centre. To me, he had the perfect all round game. In reality I ended up a (very) poor mans Philip Danaher, who I also admired.
Favourite Irish player during my formative years was Philip Matthews.

There are several:
England Grand Slam 1980 (in particular that poor quality Wales match and Dusty Hare's winning penalty that still makes my spine tingle if I see it replayed)
Lions in Aus 1989 and Guscutt's try
Lions in SA 1997 and Guscotts's drop goal
Most things Martin Johnson did on the field. He was an all round hard man and embodied so much of what I love about the game.

What got me hooked?

Well I was brought up watching the Welsh side of the early 1970s, and the addiction to the sport was comfirmed when I went to several of the matches on the all conquering Australian School Boys tour in 1977 and was amazed by the likes of Wally Lewis, Michael O'Connor and, of course, the magnificent Ella brothers.

Llanelli got me hooked on rugby. Players like Rupert Moon (I know, I know...), Scott Quinnell and Stephen Jones. Then for Wales there was Neil Jenkins who was a shining light for me in my earlier years of watching rugby. Then on the international stage there was Keith Wood and Thomas Castaignede, Jonah Lomu I loved watching all of them play.

My first rugby Heros were:

Noel Mannion
Brendan Mullen
Donal Lenihan
Michael Kiernan
Fergus Aherne
Ralph Keyes
Keith Crossan

All from the Ireland team of the late 80s. I went to nearly every 6n game and though we could only beat Wales they were good to watch.

I'll never forget Noel Mannions great try v Wales in the 89 6N.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCN2ouFp5M&sns=em


Fast forward a couple of years to the 1991 WC and Ireland had added some big names to the squad:

Simon Goeghan
Gordon Hamilton
Philip Matthews

When Gordon Hamilton scored v Aus to set up a thrilling last few minutes I was hooked on rugby for life.

Notable foreigners who I remember.

Serge Blanco
Grant Fox
Michael Lynagh
John Eales

Special mention to Bob Dywer who gave me all the badges from his blazer after a 1991 WC match after I waited for ages to see Campo but didn't get to say hello as he left via another exit.

France Vs New Zealand 1999 when I was 4 was the first match I ever watched and instantly started playing!

The Scotland grand slam in 1990 was pretty much the first time I'd heard of rugby, but it was really in 1995 that I became hooked (which coincided with the year I started playing).

Three things really that made 1995 special:

1. The Toonie Flip at Parc de Princes.

2. Jonah Lomu

3. SA winning the RWC final.

2001 HEC final. Leiecster v Stade Francais. Never seen a game before and just flicked over while bored

My old man was mad on rugby and had trials for Llanelli RFC so I didn't stand much chance (being taken down to a wet rugby pitch when I was six to play for the Llanelli Wanderers).
But what really hooked me was watching Ieuan Evans, the Quinells, Wayne Procter and the rest of the Scarlets playing some great rugby and beating the Aussies - and of course there was always Rupert Moon and his celebration with Evans...

A good friend called Brian Armstrong who I met at a soccer playing school. We both liked a sneaky half-pint and he talked me into giving it a go. I was 16/17 at the time and became hooked.

I then grew up watching the great Welsh sides of the 70's and the occasional Irish genious, like Gibson, Ward, Ollie Campbell. Some others that inspired me were David Duckham, Grant Batty (NZ), Andy Irvine and one of the finest players I have ever seen Jean Pierre Rives. He would have been a superstar in this professional game.

Now it isn't so much particular players that inspire me, rather the game itself and the changes we have seen since professionalism. Oh and the fans. I am inspired by the depth of knowledge of some of the people I have met in the past couple of years.

[b]By the way Staggy, a great article.

Rav, did you ever see J-P Rives not finish a match covered in his own blood? The man never gave less than his all

All down to Llanelli, scoring tries from their own 22 and then doing great in the 2007 HC absolutely sealed it.

Llanelli was the main origin, but Wales alongside hooked me even more.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Rav, did you ever see J-P Rives not finish a match covered in his own blood? The man never gave less than his all

So right Asbo. Didn't know the words "step back". Punched well above his weight. indeed.

for me started when i went to a to rugby experience weekend at my local club, got me hooked, but became alot more passionate after attending a rugby camp with sale sharks and i think what got me completely hooked was 2003 world cup seeing the likes of shane and Alfie and since then rather than just enjoying the sport as a young child i have come to loving it almost like a religion

I was all roundball till I went to a Grammar School in '78 and the only round balls were for cricket or hockey.

The games tutor insisted that we play our rugby like Bath, it was drilled into us military-style, it did seem odd though as Leicester were either winning or contesting the final of the JP Cup each year, I saw the odd Bath game in highlight form on Rugby Special and although some of it looked fast and fancy it clearly didn't win owt.

Then the 80's domination kicked in and I was totally hooked on Bath Rugby, unfortunately by this stage of my career my time in the three-quarters was finished and I was packing down at 7 - in need of tips on how to cheat successfully I had to go back to watching Leicester....

1953-4 All Blacks watched them versus Southern counties and Combined Services.Great players Tiny White,Kevin Skinner,Ron Hemi,Bill Clarke,Bob Scott,Ron Jarden especially.
the first TV Program watched England v France 1953.

As a kid playing scrum half for my school, definitely Gareth Edwards.

I guess I really 're-hooked' back with rugby with the 97 Lions tour. I had always followed the game in the papers in the interim, and wouldn't miss the 6N, but most of my peers in my teens and twenties were not interested in the game. Living in a football mad part of London at that age, I always felt that I had to 'fit in' with my mates.

I did manage to get to a few games at Twickenham during those days (plus the Middlesex 7s).

Moving out of central London meant I developed a different group of friends, many of whom loved the game. I took it on from there.

Often friends have more influence than players or teams. Maybe that's another topic.

For me it was Irvine and Phil Bennet of the 77 Lions. That tour was the last of the real big ones here and when I started playing. Kirwan and Fox were the same age group in Aucklnd and I ran up against them in club rugby on tghe odd ocasion. Auckland rugby in the 80s is the best Ive seen before or since. Jones coming on the scene the way he did in 87 was huge.

The thing that has got me hooked on Rugby is the international nature of it, whether that is national sides, or clubs and provinces playing each other. Growing up it was all Aussie Rules and some league, which are great, but only domestic. Rugby provides a common interest between me and people like you which my first two codes couldn't, which allows me to have a conversation about football with someone other than my neighbours.

My ex boyfirend got me into rugby in the first place, although living in Wales, it was always around but I never really followed a regional side until I met him. So some good can come from old relationships

Jonathan Davies and watching the Crowning years of Welsh rugby with my grandfather when I was young.

O'Driscoll scoring a hat trick in Paris sealed it for me.I used to watch the 5 Nations because it was sport and Ireland were playing but I was never bothered about missing a game until I saw that.

The thing about it was that Ireland hadn't won in Paris in 30 or 40 years and the commentators were all doom and gloom so I was really just waiting for the usual hiding we got over there.
The other thing that made it stand out was that Ireland didn't really score tries in those days,we would bang over a few penalties to try to keep in touch with the big guns but an Irish centre scoring 3 tries was completely alien to my eyes.

I got involved with rugby by playing it in the South Wales Valleys from the mid-1950s.
But at around the same time I started going regularly to the Arms Park, where Cardiff RFC played on what was the international ground - albeit surrounded by a greyhound track which I think was there until the late 1970s.
So the players who hooked me were those playing for Cardiff in the second half of the '50s - the famous like Cliff Morgan, the fairly famous like Rex Willis, and the faithful clubmen like Gordon Wells.

For me, it started with The Welsh in the 70's. Edwards, Barry-John, JPR, Bennett. They and their team-mates, were playing a level of rugby, Id never seen before. Loved watching them play. It was like watching the Dutch play football. With freedom and expression.

Then I saw Mike Gibson and Fergus Slattery play for Ireland and the Baa-Baa's. Sold. My love affair with Irish rugby began.

Also loved the way France tried to play the game - back in the day. Players like Sella & Blanco were inspirational to watch.

Really had no interest in SH rugby. It was all about the 5-N for me, back then.

I learned to fully appreciate it since, via the Lions and with the advent of the RWC.

I first started watching rugby on TV in 1988 when Will Carling was announced as England captain, but really got hooked on it after going with some workmates to watch Wakefield play and beat Gloucester in the 1994 Pilkington Cup.

Llanelli RFC back in the 80's with the likes of Jonathan Davies, Ieuan Evans and Phill Davies putting one over the great enemy - Neath RFC! 1987 Schweppes Cup final - what a beauty!