Ulster rugby fans a credit to Ulster!!

I had the pleasure of mixing with some Ulster Rugby fans there this weekend in Dublin when they came down to Landsdowne Rd to watch Ulster beat Edinburgh and qualify for the Heineken Cup Final.

Have to say they were a pleasent good natured bunch of lads and lasses. They drank, they sang songs and mingled with the locals in the various pubs around Dublin. No threats of violence or intimidation. Upwards of 40,000 travelled down and they were all a credit to the province of Ulster.

Not a single offensive Sectarian song was sung and no songs were sung confessing hatred of certain opposition players either!!

Now cast your mind back to this time last year when the NIreland football team were coming down to play the Republic of Ireland at Landsdowne Rd!!!

Due to intelligence received the IFA and the PSNI would only allow something like 3 or 4,000 travel down as they were afraid things would turn nasty. They were worried the Norths fans would engage in Sectarian singing and even try and attack innocent members of the public.

Its a mystery to me why can't the Northern Football supporters just behave themselves like civilised people like their rugby following counterparts do!!

It backfired on the Nireland team as only around 1,000 actually turned up to watch their side suffer a humiliating 5-0 thumping at the hands of Robbie Keane and co. Who knows if they had brought another few thousand with them they might have helped their side to keep the score down to a respectable 2 or 3-0 defeat!!

Anyone know why the Rugby fans are so well behaved compared to the Football fans?