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Ireland fans get greenlight for summer Tests

By PA
The Aviva Stadium /PA

Ireland rugby fans have been given the green light to return to the Aviva Stadium for the first time in 17 months for the summer Tests against Japan and the United States.

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Capacity for the Japan game on Saturday, July 3 will be limited to 3,000 supporters, with 6,000 people permitted to attend the USA’s visit to Dublin a week later.

The pilot events will be the first time fans have been at the 51,700-seater stadium since February 8, 2020, when Andy Farrell’s men beat Wales 24-14 in the Guinness Six Nations.

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Irish Rugby Football Union chief executive Philip Browne said in a statement: “These games are initial positive steps on the journey back to hopefully full stadia across the island.

“The numbers are small, but I am sure spectators will make themselves heard in cheering on the team.

“We hope that this programme, if successful, will put us all in a strong position to welcome back larger numbers of fans to the Aviva Stadium in the autumn when we will have three international rugby fixtures, including games against New Zealand and Argentina.”

The IRFU will allocate 300 tickets for the Japan game to frontline workers in recognition of their contribution during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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J
JW 10 minutes ago
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Have to imagine it was a one off sorta thing were they were there (saying playing against the best private schools) because that is the level they could play at. I think I got carried away and misintrepted what you were saying, or maybe it was just that I thought it was something that should be brought in.


Of course now school is seen as so much more important, and sports as much more important to schooling, that those rural/public gets get these scholarships/free entry to play at private schools.


This might only be relevant in the tradition private rugby schools, so not worth implementing, but the same drain has been seen in NZ to the point where the public schools are not just impacted by the lost of their best talent to private schools, there is a whole flow on effect of losing players to other sports their school can' still compete at the highest levels in, and staff quality etc. So now and of that traditional sort of rivalry is near lost as I understand it.


The idea to force the top level competition into having equal public school participation would be someway to 'force' that neglect into reverse. The problem with such a simple idea is of course that if good rugby talent decides to stay put in order to get easier exposure, they suffer academically on principle. I wonder if a kid who say got selected for a school rep 1st/2nd team before being scouted by a private school, or even just say had two or three years there, could choose to rep their old school for some of their rugby still?


Like say a new Cup style comp throughout the season, kid's playing for the private school in their own local/private school grade comp or whatever, but when its Cup games they switch back? Better represent, areas, get more 2nd players switching back for top level 1st comp at their old school etc? Just even in order to have cool stories where Ella or Barrett brothers all switch back to show their old school is actually the best of the best?

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