Sports In Ireland

 Sports in Ireland

The most famous sports in Ireland are Gaelic football, boxing, hockey, rowing, cricket, rugby union, and hurling.

 

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other in boats. It’s a physical and special sport which needs technic.

Hurling is the greatest Irish national sport and the world's fastest field team game. The object of the game is for players to use a wooden stick called a Hurley (which is 100 centimeters long) to hit a small ball called a sliotar. They can use their hands and the aim is to score a goal in a net guarded by a goal keeper. The equivalent game for women is called Camogie.

  

Gaelic Football is a sport played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score points by passing the ball over or through the other team's goals, a set of two upright posts separated by a crossbar 2.5 meters above the ground.  It is like soccer with limited use of hands allowed. A Gaelic football player can only play in one club in his life.

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Rugby

Rugby was introduced in Ireland in 1854 in Dublin University. Nowadays, it is the most popular sport. The IRFU (Irish Rugby Football Federation) was officially created in 1879. There are presently about 60.000 rugby players in Ireland and we count 246 schools playing rugby. The Irish National team, 7th best team of the world, according to the IRB, is composed of well-known players, as Jonathan Sexton, Ronan O'Gara or Brian O'Driscoll. Unfortunately, the Irish XV has never won the world cup, but won once the "Grand Slam" in 2009, a great moment for Irish rugby and 11 times the 6 Nations Chamionship. This year, the Irish XV finished the Six Nations Championship on the 5th place, just before the French team. Irish rugby has exactly the same rules than French one because they are ruled by International rugby federation. Irish rugby union is divided in four team, each one has its own team: the Leister, the Ulster, the Munster and the Connacht. There are different levels of competitions: the club competition in the Irish Championship and the provincial competition in the Celtic league and in the Heineken Cup.

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Cricket

Cricket is the other popular sport in Ireland. It has been played in Ireland since the beginning of 19th century. The Irish federation of cricket is the Cricket Ireland. Cricket is a sort of baseball, but in a circular field with a flat bat and a bigger ball. The first recorded match was on the 10th of September in 1855 in Dublin, a great moment for the Irish cricket. The Irish team became officially a member of the ICC (International Cricket Council) in 1992. Irish cricket team has already won the World Cup in 2009 and the Intercontinental Cup five times between 2005 and 2008. They have won many other titles like European Championship in 1996 or the Triple Crown in the same year.

What is the equivalent of Hurling for women?

What is a hurley and how  long is it?

Give some differences between cricket and baseball.

When was the first recorded cricket match in ireland ?

Give one name of a well-known irish rugby player ? 

When did the Irish team win the Grand Slam ? 

How many 6 Nations Championship has Ireland won?

Côme Lavisse, Vincent Rossi, Nicolas Cussigh, Paul Roux.