Batchy's Blues equivalent at Bledisloe Cup

[Set piece magic]

Payto recently mentioned in his column that the ARU is looking at doing this at the bled in sydney this year. group bookings, all black fans at one end Wallabies at the other.

I fully support this for a number of reasons

- people who say that rugby fans should sit together, yes there should always be an option to sit with the opposition fans, but there should also be the option to sit in a homogenous block. And to be honest (I love the kiwi fans on GAGR) I find sitting next to kiwi's at bled games a gamble, you get some with good banter and some that are dickheads (like any fans).

- The group booking idea is superb, I can think of nothing better than teeing up 30 mates to get rowdy at the pub and go to the bledisloe. It makes it noisier, it makes it funner and it really gets the support going. How many of us are louder when we are watching the game with a group of mates who are all on the piss.

- The funeral crowd can stick to their platinum seats on halfway and sit in silence. I'm sick of getting fired up at games and having some wowser turn around and tell me to be a little bit quieter. We are at the footy for fucks sake. This happened at a Reds game and all I was doing was talking slightly louder than I normally would as I retold the story of Hasting's missed penalty in the 1991 RWC Semi to a mate. We moved seats at half time, but I can tell you any casual sports fan would probably have left and not came back. Shame on you.

Now you can sit down, shut up and talk M&A with complementary prawn sandwiches, and not be worried about people like me who are actually watching the game / supporting the team.

- Please do this for the Brisbane game as well.

- Lock up the annoying AB fans in one spot, let the respectful ones sit where they want.

in short, win win for everyone and adds PASSION, something that is almost non-existent in Australian crowds to the game. Bring it on. Now who disagrees with me let's argue

 

[BigSteve]

This is an excellent idea! an example of this working recently was the A-league Final, the Roar vs Wanderers had fans sit in certain sections and the atmosphere looked incredible.

 

[Set piece magic]

Big Steve I was in the den for the grand final and it was great. The place was going off pre game on cakko and during the game was great as well. Fantastic atmosphere. No violence in site although two idiots got arrested for being D&D.

 

[BigSteve]

Big Steve I was in the den for the grand final and it was great. The place was going off pre game on cakko and during the game was great as well. Fantastic atmosphere. No violence in site although two idiots got arrested for being D&D.

I think thats what the ARU and Wallabies need a little passion from their Supporters! Ideas such as this will really engage the casual supporter. Cheering and participating in the highs and lows of a game surrounded by like minded people will definitely make the game a lot more attractive.

 

[Pfitzy]

Heh. Try starting a chant at a Waratahs game. They even try over the PA system and it falls flat. Everyone thinks they're watching it on TV.

 

[RugbyFuture]

Once got told by guy at a tahs game that if I was going to wave a supplied flag (given by tahs marketing to us) in the cheap section during the game he would deck me.

Sent from my HTC_0P6B using Tapatalk

 

[Set piece magic]

It comes down to human psychology of what's socially acceptable and our desire to fit in. I would wager 70% of the people at a Tahs game would be singing and chanting if everyone else was doing it.

Too many old farts at the game telling people to sit down. If you ask me not any Aus rugby games have much of an atmosphere at all, even when there is 80000 people there most of them just politely applaud.

The Lions games last year had atmosphere, as did the ABs game in Brisbane in 2011, but other than that some rugby games can resemble a funeral, and it's switching young people off.

Someone told me to sit down at the game on Sunday and I just told them to fuck off and watch the game on Fox if they wanted silence. Either that or go sit in platinum seats

 

[Bardon]

It doesn't take that much to improve the atmosphere and to be fair a funeral would be an improvement on some Super Rugby games. About 7 or 8 years ago when Leinster move from Donnybrook to the RDS they were worried about losing atmosphere. So they had a dedicated section for cheering and singing.

They're still there to this day and it's where a lot of the songs and chants originate. All you need is a small but very enthusiastic group of dedicated fans with a few musical instruments thrown in.

Before they did this the atmosphere at Leinster games wasn't great, when compared to Munster or Ulster. Leinster fans didn't make all that much noise, although they'd be considered noisy by SH standards. Now the atmosphere at games is fantastic.

It might take a bit longer to take root in the SH where there's no real tradition of singing or chanting at rugby games, especially when compared to the NH. But a dedicated section where those who want to make noise can will certainly help. It's much easier to get a song or chant going when you don't have to deal with fools who think they're at the opera.

Dedicate a section of the cheap seats to people who want to come make some noise and tell anyone sitting there who complains about people being rowdy to go get stuffed, I mean go sit in the platinum seats. You'll quickly get a core of people who'll gel together and lead the songs and come up with some new chants.

Eventually you'll get a subset of this section who'll make some noise for your team at some of your away games, especially when it comes to finals time.