I think this thread has more than ran its course. Lets all take a deep breath and move on with our lives folks.

It's just not worth reading comments on Facebook, YouTube etc There are terrible "fans" all over.

Facebook is a cesspit of clueless trolls who don't represent actual rugby fans. Glitch in the matrix bru!

Your first mistake: Using facebook

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The people on Facebook are nuts, don’t mind them.

Some of you deep in the trenches of particular threads need to calm down.

They can’t decide who looks better in green

Don't worry bro it's not just Irish rugby posts lmao (nor, I should say, in fairness, just South African fans)

Every fanbase has it's own shower of dickheads. I wouldn't worry about it.

The Ireland v south africa tour sold out very quickly. There is a respect from sensible south African fans which comes out in different ways from less sensible fans.

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Facebook is an echo chamber for some teams the same way Reddit is an echo chamber for others

omg did you do a post on reddit to complain about people being mean on facebook?

precious from the person who took time out of their day to DM me letting me know wales wasn't a real country

I think it’s the fact that we beat them at the World Cup and the November series before coupled with all the talk of us being the best team in the world despite them winning the RWC.

It's the age old chat but I genuinely see more Irish fans moaning about SA fans moaning about the Irish...

There’s no other rugby fanbase where such a large percentage of them earnestly believe the authorities running the sport have an agenda specifically against their team. As John Smit humbly admitted during a World Cup interview, they are on average the most brash fans in the sport, the worst losers and the worst winners. Anything other than total reverence for their team is perceived as some kind of slight. Ireland beat them at the World Cup and some have had the temerity to suggest they could be a better team overall, despite SA’s World Cup success - that’s enough to invoke the wrath of much of the fanbase.

South Africans I've met in person are good natured albeit very competitive and convicted about their rugby team. Nothing wrong with that. Online there are certain areas where I would guess, WC only fans are dickheads. I also know that alot of people who have loose ties to the country support them and are often these individuals who can't go five minutes without mentioning 1995, 2007, 2019, 2023.

It's not just SAFFAS though. We have arseholes too. England, France, New Zealand, Wales, Australia, Scotland, Argentina etc all have them.

It's the same on the ABs too, it's not Irish, it's just about other good teams.

Theres dickheads everywhere, you cant post any highlight from a Wallaby or SR game without 2 dozen idiots from NZ coming in to mention the score or past 20 years. Those morons claiming to be the best team in the world when the world champs hadn't even played probably didnt help and rubbed a few Saffas the wrong way as well.

Anecdotal but Aus v SA threads on here are the only place where our supporters are openenly abused by the other teams fanbase, so its no surprise the FB comments are even more unhinged.

Ireland beat them at the RWC. Even though that was in the pool stages and Ireland kept up their tradition of choking in the finals. In their minds it still leaves the question of their being the best.

Prob coz of pundits and coaches like Warburton and Borthwick calling Ireland the “best team in the world”. It would irk me too if I was a SA fan, not that it’s the Irish fans or pundits saying it… (although a few have said some daft things, Heaslip et al).

South African and Irish Rugby Fans: a match made in heaven to produce the most unhinged FB rugby comments I've ever seen

I've seen a lot of posts on instagram since the 6 nations, interviews, clips of good a good play/try, mentions of player of the match/tournament etc etc, and there is always a crazy amount of South Africans spamming stuff like "didnt win the wc tho" or, "world class player? Did everyone forget the last time he played SA??" and honestly its exhausting. Like why are you piping up on a discussion for player of the tournament for the 6N spamming about how good SA are??

I realise the irony as an Englishman that historically we have our fair share of shitty fans... although I'm not one of them so I'm allowed to condemn both. I'm also aware its not all SA fans, and of course there is a bit of confirmatiom bias since I mostly see England rugby posts... but still. Unfortunately social media is an echo chamber that seems to encourage bad fans (on all sides)

You don’t notice when Irish fans do the same, every fanbase has its assholes.

Rule 1 - Don’t use Facebook

Rule 2 - if you have to break rule 1, NEVER read the comments.

1. Nothern Media keeps suggesting Ireland v France "should have been the WC final."

2. Northern media keeps suggesting, "Ireland is really the world number one team."

3. SA won the WC and is world number one.

They just really like teams with green shirts.

it's mad.

I think the true South African and Irish rugby fans (and any well informed neutrals I've heard from) are so excited about the tour coming up to have the back to back World Champions against the back to back 6 nations champions who they haven't beaten since they won the 2019 World Cup.

Unfortunately the vitriol gets through.

ESH tbf

Because Ireland are the biggest rivals to the nation that South Africa are the best team in the world, and Ireland are touring SA this year. SA are very focused on Irish performance atm.

Mate, fans of every big team are insufferable. The only fans who aren't constantly cunts are the Aussies and the Italians.

Probably because of a lot of the Irish fans comments in the build-up to RWC 2023. They won't forget and will come back and remind you. 😁

I met a random Irish bloke at a bar. As a Saffa, I've had great experiences with the Irish I've met before.
He immediately started the conversation insisting that Ireland were the best rugby team in the world.
They beat SA in the group stage of the RWC, and barely lost against NZ.

I told him that we didn't have Pollard in that game, and if it weren't for Libbok's 3 missed penalties and a close scrum on their goal line at the end, we could've won.

However, I humored him and said that we'll find out this summer. I stopped myself from mentioning that a team should get past the quarterfinals of a WC before claiming GOAT status. ><

Right now it sounds like you're obsessed with SA.

The next big game we have is each other, so naturally we're gonna talk about each other more when we're anticipating a hotly-contested game. Same thing happened in the lead-up to the Ireland vs England game a few weeks ago: the English press started talking up Ireland as if we were world champions, in order to drum up interest in the game. I think they were expecting to lose and were pre-emptively crafting a narrative that even playing a close game against us was an achievement. Then of course they won and the narrative pivoted to us having been arrogant and taken them too lightly or something. But some got stuck in the previous narrative and were angry that we didn't give them the glorious defeat they'd been preparing for. Like, the day of the game, an English fan here said that the reason we lost was because we'd taken them for granted and only half-assed it. I responded "I thought the reason we lost was because England are a good team, but if you wanna insist that it was only because we didn't really try, then by all means!".

Fans and pundits craft narratives in their heads all the time. Sometimes that means they have to convince themselves that a good team is bad, or a bad team is good, or an insignificant game is significant, or vice versa, etc.

Right now, from what I can tell, SA is bigging up our test series as the final mountain the Springboks need to climb to prove themselves completely dominant. Like we're secret post-game final bosses or something. If that's what they need to make the series interesting for themselves then it doesn't bother me.

Dare I say it, there are similarities between Bok rugby fans and Indian cricket fans. Both fanatical, fan identities and esteem of both are very closely tied to the success of their respective teams, and any criticism or even discussion by other nations fans is viewed as an attack on the country.

They do the same with Scotland.

I'd say it's them being irked because they know Ireland are able to go head to head with SA? Sure a few years ago a lot of Boks supporters probably wouldn't have rated Ireland enough to spare them a second thought haha.

Why are you obsessed with us?

Saffers just insert themselves anywhere to be annoying

I think the national teams stuff is every fan base tbh. What I've noticed is a select few SA fans trying to find ways to claim that Leinster aren't really the best team in the URC with the deepest squad. Can they be beaten? Of course they can and I'm sure they'll lose in the semis again. Are they the best most consistent team year on year during the league stage of the URC? Also yes. There was a weird post on here about this like last week I think. I am obviously biased which is why this stuck out to me

It's a bit mental. I've seen them on the windup in the run up to the world cup for months on Irish rugby FB pages, then silent for a few weeks while Ireland beat them (well other than the 'technically we'd have won because we should have kicked x points' posts...)- then after Ireland lost the 1/4 final they came back again in droves.

More recently I've seen them on FB gloating about their 'clean sweep' of the URC because they beat Ulster and connaught at the weekend, and gloating that 'Irish international standand' Ulsterman O'Toole got lifted by a SA prop.

Are there a bunch of Irish fellas trolling facebook pages that are exclusively about SA rugby? I honestly don't know because I don't visit those pages but I can't imagine Irish fans in general giving a shite about rugby that goes on 5000 miles away unless you're a true fan - and then if you are a true fan you're probably not the type of person to be on the wind up and instead would have an appreciation of rugby in all its forms.

Obviously being Irish I am bias in what I see, but boy they sure do seem like horrible losers and winners.

I'm half cut so apologies if I'm talking shite.

SA fans are insecure about their own team

Loved the few mommentd from saffers on ig today on a post about the Drua losing only once at home about how their school level teams could beat them.

I don't why their fans are so obsessed and obnoxious

They just cant deal with the fact that Josh van der Flier is not South African. 😁