Mexicans

[Beattiespastie]

Mixed bag for me,I was at pitch level in great seats with a bunch of Ulster lads who were great fun but this was tempered by a young Leinster lad sat beside me who basically laughed at every Ulster error to the point were I was seriously considering violence..only thinking mind you! The vast majority were good lads but interestingly it was a bunch of young English posh types that took the biscuit on the walk back to the footbridge...attired in Leinster tops they were making very unkind remarks about the Lads when I inquired about which part of Dublin they were from...apparently they had more in common with Leinster as they could understand the Dublin accent better and Dublin was a nicer city than Belfast..???

[fermain]

LOL, I have in the past mistaken Blackrock aristocracy as English before, their accents are so 'posh'!!!

[Loki]

there was a sound group of 4 or so in front of us who got involved in some verbals whenever I decided to slander the upstanding gent Leo Cullen. however after that we got into a good chat and one fella in particular (a fellow Kev(in)) was well informed and decent as Leinster began to move away. Hope they had a good night.

the only thing that really annoyed me (though I was a bit oblivious to most of the fans) were a bunch of lads who, immediately after a try, turned round to a small group of SUFTUM'ers in our predominantly Mexican area and started bellowing "You're not singing....anymore" for a good 4 bars. It's the kind of crassness that's recently turned me against live football and I just don't see how it's necessary to demean another set of supporters like that. of course they weren't singing at that exact second, we'd just conceded a try. In fairness to those being sung at they gave back stacks.

On the whole a pleasant experience from the Leinster fans and the noise and banter contributed to a cracking atmosphere. Some very genial Italian, French, Irish and English lads met on the way to and fro as well; in particular, when the girlfriend lost a pint in the throng a young English lad brought us two back around half time.

[petey11]

"the only thing that really annoyed me (though I was a bit oblivious to most of the fans) were a bunch of lads who, immediately after a try, turned round to a small group of SUFTUM'ers in our predominantly Mexican area and started bellowing "You're not singing....anymore" for a good 4 bars."

Obviously from the fruitball ranks, I've never once in all my (far too many) years had an experience like that from Leinster fans. I'd write that one off, as has been said, there are plenty of undesireables hanging onto Ulster's shirt tails. They will have let go now that Ulster didn't win, the boys in blue will still have theirs so that's what they get for victory

It seems to me that it's cityfolk who tend to receive the ire of those of us from the sticks. We tend to vent our spleens a little at the crass, loud and overbearing Belfast man you will find positioned right next to your left lug for the whole game at Ravenhill. There's always a few. Are those types simply synonymous with population centres or do those of you from Belfast save a little bit of vitriol for us uneducated, uncouth bufoons who reside outside the city boundaries?

[rocky]

Pots and kettles, Petey. There's no exclusivity in being a Richard Cranium. Not a Belfast man, me, but have met idiots from all areas, as well as great people. May even have been one myself occasionally when partaking of too much falling down water. Sometimes those who appear at first meeting to be idiots turn out later to be all right (and sometimes not).

[fermain]

I think this thread says it all really... a few bumholes on both sides on any given day, but also lots of friendly folk, and great banter.

[big mervyn]

Speak as you find of course, but apart from a couple of Mexicans having a traditional "spilt pint" arguement amongst the mayhem in the Orange Tree during the Champions League Final I found them grand.

Travelled back on the late tube with a bunch of them and the crack was good. The cheeky barstewards were handing out wee gold stars to stick on their shirts Still, they gave us one each and we even swapped a fleg.

Good crack on the way to the ground with a London Welsh fan and a bunch of diamond geezers going to see the 'ammers.

Good laff outside Twickers with some Leeds fans and a bunch of Asturians. I even talked to them in my pi$h poor Spanish - I think I convinced them to SUFTUM. Did anybody else see the bloke climbing the statue and getting arrested when he peeled off his boxers?

The only numpties where I was sitting in the ground were a couple of miserable turnips who objected to the Stand Ups. Quite a few English fans near us including some Cornish Pirates who were all Standing Up.

Great day bar the result.

[Beattiespastie]

I travelled in one of four coaches from Belfast to Twickers and I can say that to a man/ woman they were all lovely folk young and old and certainly Ulster fans for life. To comment that certain hanger on type Ulster supporters will fall away now is incredibly naive..as is the comment that some of the boorish,arrogant behavior of some Leinster supporters was a " one off". On the contrary I think you will find Ulsters support is now on the rise like the team that did us all proud on Saturday. It's taken a number of years to build this present Leinster side but Ulster are now on that journey as well..it may take a couple of years but we are heading the right way.
Ulster draws it's support from a broad spectrum of folks in our tiny country and all of them are fantastic folk...that's the beauty of a Friday night at Ravenhill...you get the odd lad who bellows for 80 minutes in everybody's ears and often at an opposing supporter but it's always good natured banter and pints are drunk and hands are shaken at the end. 400 miles on a coach from Twickers to cairnryan yesterday would have been a nightmare but for the fact I was with 50 other men,women and kids who were proud of their Ulster heroes and were proud to stand up for the Ulstermen.

[pwrmoore]

Baggy - people who go into any situation with like saturday an existing prejudice and expectation usually find all the evidence they need to confirm it while subconsciously disregarding the evidence to the contrary. There wer a few assholes on both sides but my experience of the day was superb and all the leinster fans I had interaction with were brilliant.

A superb day. We were outplayed by the best team in Europe and while it may have been a record winning score in a HEC final we still can hold our heads high. We were there on merit. We made them work for their victory and we will be back again.

Thanks to all the fans from whatever part of the world they came from you made the day brilliant!!!

[rakem]

i had no problem with our mexican friends whatsoever. and i am in a prime position to comment, given me and a mate were stuck amongst a few hundred of them behind the posts! shook them all by the hand after the game, and wished them all the best.

in fact a general observation, from hanging around the area afterwards and indeed the next day, is that they weren't celebrating hard enough. they seemed to nearly expect it, and take it for granted as if it now comes second nature to them. i know that if ulster had won that game, id still be in london at the bottom of a bottle somewhere!

[rotherhamtillidie]

As a "neutral" outsider to this, i'd say it was on the most passive, polite sporting atmosphere's i've been at, walking to the ground was quite quiet, very few people were overtly drinking and there was almost no singing or shouting, banter etc. The game itself had a great atmosphere I though, and the quality of rugby was excellent, ulster probably just had fewer xfactor players who were able to break the line.

I was in a mix area of fans (majority mexicans as you put it), and other than cheering, clapping and the occassional 'come on you boys in blue' there wasnt much spontaneous singing or chanting. Zero agro between fans, and no banter compared to other games i've been to. But the atmosphere was good and I'm certainly not complaining or criticising anyone.

I loved the day, the north stand literally ran out of beer, and I endup on on cider for the second half, which was strange!

Would like to thanks some lads in the north stand who randomly brough us all a beer for being english fans who were supporting the under dogs on the day, very kind of them.

Thanks for letting us share your day!

[Exileinciderland]

Myself and the lad had a great laugh with loads of Mexicans outside the ground beforehand and were sat up in the gods in the north stand with a pretty diverse crowd, including a couple of Tigers fans who had brought along a fleg to fly supporting Ulster. After the match we had many a chat with the Mexicans and apart from an obvious smugness, they were gracious enough and wished us all the best.
The only problem I had was with a steward (and the powerhungry copper in his radio), we were sat in the front row and tied our fleg to the safety catch rail in front of the bulkhead as did the Tigers fans beside us, only to be told that the copper in charge had ordered that all flegs be taken down. Usual miserable English , but then living among them, I shouldn't be surpised!
Great day out, great craic on the train to and from Twickers, shame about the result but hey ho we'll be back.

[horslips]

Baggy

I would share some of your sentiments. Generally I found the Mexicans to be a rather dull and soul less lot and very little banter. The daughter did encountered a group of 4 as see queued for more beer - a group of young lads who were sledging heavily about the imminent defeat and how they were coming up to "pi$h through her letterbox". Needless to say as a qualified Mechanical Engineer, a woman in a mans world so to speak, she conducted a design appraisal, fault tree analysis and concluded the optimal course of action was to advise them to attempt the anatomically impossible. I understand the were rather quiet after that.

I did have several good yarns with much older (retired possibly) munster fans who were sympathectic, engaging and good craic.

[darkside lightside]

I can't help but feel there's a little bit of sour grapes here, but that's your prerogative.

I can't help but think you're right, BT is a Munster 'uncle Tom' who rarely stops going on about how much he hates Leinster - it was a matter of when (and how long), not if, there was going to be an anti-Leinster diatribe post-match...

I thought the Leinster fans we were sitting around pre-match all seemed dead-on, and though I was mostly chatting to my mates, a couple of my mates (pretty loyal lads ) were having great craic with some of the Leinster boys.

The only a-hole I met was this Munster nob walking back to the station, who was going on - at top volume, for the benefit of everyone within half a mile - about how effing s***e the final was, and how Leinster were effing s***e, and how it was a disgrace of a final, and both sides were s***e - on and on and on, and it didn't seem like he was kidding... But then getting the train home that night I met an old chap, who I mistook for a Leinster fan, but it transpired he was from Munster, and he was a lovely chap - spoke very favourably and consolingly about Ulster, and I must say perked my spirits up a bit! And restored my faith in Munster humanity a little as well

[Snipe Watson]

I can't help but feel there's a little bit of sour grapes here, but that's your prerogative.

I can't help but think you're right, BT is a Munster 'uncle Tom' who rarely stops going on about how much he hates Leinster - it was a matter of when (and how long), not if, there was going to be an anti-Leinster diatribe post-match...

IN COMING

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