Tigers are the only real club team left in UK

So I see Richard Cockerill has come out with the statement that Tigers "are one of the very few proper rugby clubs in the UK left".

Has he a point? What constitutes a "proper club"? Why are Bath, Saints, London Irish, Exeter, Wasps any different?

Anyone know what he means?

Wow. The whole of the UK? Not just England?

What does he know of the real Neath club? Or Dungannon? Or Melrose?

Elitist Muppet.

I've been to The Stoop for a handful of Quins games. Lovely bunch of fans, passionate support and the kind of rugby tradition the likes of Keith Wood was attracted to when he left Munster for a while. I can't see how they aren't a real club.

And I think he's talked himself out of a few interviews when he next has to apply for a coaching job.

He was Front Row so you have to make allowances!

The Welsh clubs stopped being real clubs when England set up the Courage leagues. Closed squads then professionalism were the final nails for the true clubs.

I asked Portnoy on 606 what he thought (being a Tigers fan). He felt it was a correct statement. He said Welsh and Scottish clubs no longer compete at the top and more and more English clubs are being owned by sugar daddies rather than by the fans.

I think the addition of "at the highest level" may have clarified his point. Once you get below Magners & Aviva there’s 100’s of proper rugby clubs left

PenfroPete wrote:I think the addition of "at the highest level" may have clarified his point. Once you get below Magners & Aviva there’s 100’s of proper rugby clubs left

Well said Penfro.

greybeard wrote:

Elitist Muppet.

Yes, well, anyone who knows rugby or supports Leicester knows that Richard Cockerill is neither elitist (your rudey poo spelling) or a muppet.

I know people misspelling a word are ripe for ridicule on a forum, but calling someone out for spelling elitist correctly seems a bit silly, no?

And I didn't call him a muppet, that was this forum. I was less polite.

Greybeard I take the view that if you resort to correctly other peoples spelling your argument must be pretty weak.

The only one I will always correct when I see it is "lose" (to fail to win) and "loose" (the opposite of tight). People just don't get these!

Ah, but where do you stand on your/you're/yore? Or their/there/they're?

And can you actually stand on a word? Is my need for clarification actually torturing the English luggage?

My thoughts on this are that can a "club" as big as Leicester really be considered just a club anymore. Surely though whole 'Tigers' brand is in itself just a bit of a franchise?

A club for me is one that you get in your local town or village. All of the bigger organisations be they a Welsh region or a club in the Aviva, they for me are more like businesses then clubs nowadays. Just my opinion though

And with regards to spelling, my particular bug bear is your/you're but seeing as I'm not such a great speller myself I don't ever call people up on it! Not sure there's much point in doing that anyway.

greybeard wrote:Ah, but where do you stand on your/you're/yore? Or their/there/they're?

Couldn't care about them.

Dreamer in that case they all stopped being clubs long before professionalism. I think you would be hard pressed to argue Leinster was not a quite old fashioned club at heart. Read Gibbo's article on the Leinster way. They are some outfit.

red_stag wrote:

greybeard wrote:Ah, but where do you stand on your/you're/yore? Or their/there/they're?

Couldn't care about them.

Tut, tut, and you a published author

Glas - I would say that any of the bigger organisations like Leicester, Leinster, Scarlets etc all have the old club ethos at the heart of them, I could never agrue against that. But I would say there is far much more to them as entities now to be just considered a club. They have a brand and a business to maintain on top of it all. That's what I meant when I said Leicester were too big to be considered a club now.

Is there a link to this story, by the way. I'd like to know if he qualified his statement in any way. On the face of it it seems like a very silly thing to say, though.