Cult heroes

First topic message reminder :


Every team has their own crop of them but after the Leinster game the supporters club folks presented Isa Nacewa with a specially commissioned “Legends tshirt” and hung the print of the legends wall along with the likes of Reggie Corrigan, Dennis Hickie, Girvan Dempsey, BOD, Contepomi etc.

Just wondering, how (if at all) are the legends and cult heroes at your club honoured?

For the record here are a selection of the Legends at Leinster:

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/olsc/merchandise.php

01 Soane Tonga'huia
02 Keith 'The Talisman' Wood
03 Martine Castrogiavanni
04 Martin Johnson
05 Paul O'Connell
06 Richard Hill
07 Neil Back
08 Zinzan Brooke
09 Austin Healey
10 Jonny Wilkinson
11 Jonah Lomu
12 Scot Gibbs
13 Brian O'Driscoll
14 Jason Robinson
15 Neil Jenkins

Too main stream Tiger, too main stream.

You've gone for folk heroes which is a different thing.

I think this is more of what Glas is looking for NUTTER and maybe some of the people in this BOOK

Glas a du wrote:And I give you, the Scarlets:

15 Justin Thomas (when at Cardiff )
14 Ieuan Evans - the Carmarthen Cowboy
13 Silesi Finau - very religious bloke
12 Simon Davies - for that tackle on Roebuck
11 Carwyn Davies - record for tries in a season
10 Carwyn James - won't even try to give enough reasons
9 Jonathan Griffiths - made Jonathan Davies

1 Iestyn Thomas - criminally overlooked by Wales
2 Dai Fox - ditto
3 Laurence Delaney - from when you measured a man by his capacity to hold his pint
4 Phill May - see Iestyn Thomas
5 Phill Davies - silky skills from a giant man
6 Quinell - all of them!
8 Emyr 'Tarw' Lewis (pre Cardiff)
7 David Pickering (see Laney above)

How do you not have Stevo aka Wellies aka The Count in this list?? (me thinks you need a bench option to fit more in, I'd like to see Chris 'fags and booze' Wyatt in there somewhere too!)

Xavier Rush - The tightest t-shirt this side of the severn

Wellies is NOT a CULT hero! He's everybody's hero because he's a good bloke and solid. Gary Pierce, now there's a cult hero. Looked more like a prop than an outside half, but could land the ball on a sixpence from 50 yards.

Fine! I still want Chris Wyatt in there though.

rugbydreamer wrote:Fine! I still want Chris Wyatt in there though.

Wyatt, a real cult hero. So much talent, but unfortunately, so much alcohol as well!

He's still playing rugby apparently Subs, not sure for what club, but how he's still going at his age I can't imagine!

somewhere in france, last i heard

Stephen Jones is nowhere near a cult hero.

Another Munster cult hero I can think of is Tony Buckley - boy did he divide opinions.

Are these cult heroes or just popular/good players?

I'd always think of a cult hero as the sort of player who is never going to make a world XV but who gives his all none the less, maybe despite not being the model athelete.

For Bath at the moment for example, Duncan Bell would fall into that category nicely (how does he have that phyisque with modern sports nutrition?!) or Budgen at Exeter. Certainly not the best players in the league but very popular none the less.

Bathman_in_London wrote:Are these cult heroes or just popular/good players?

I'd always think of a cult hero as the sort of player who is never going to make a world XV but who gives his all none the less, maybe despite not being the model athelete.

For Bath at the moment for example, Duncan Bell would fall into that category nicely (how does he have that phyisque with modern sports nutrition?!) or Budgen at Exeter. Certainly not the best players in the league but very popular none the less.

+1

CHRIS BUDGEN!

What an absolute legend that man is! A super hero of the highest cult order

If I close my eyes I can still here the cheer he got when he scored for Exeter against Saints in 2010 from the entire stadium.

I honestly think the Saints supporters cheered louder than the Chief's!

'Tis true that, Lemony, blew my head off!

One name springs to mind...Eddie Saunders

A true gent and a great servant of the game...

What makes a hero a cult hero is that the people that idolise him are in the minority, the idolisation is based on what the majority would consider an irrational or counterintuitive basis and the people who don't idolise him "just don't understand".

Therefore, you have the hero with a dark side, the sportsman who is excellent allthough he can't seem to be bothered or just isn't fit, the outcast from the establishment (he slept with a National selector's wife hence the otherwise inexplicable lack of caps) and the oddball.

I am happy to accept Chris Wyatt and Hywel Jenkins should be in the Scarlets team on that basis. I also understand that with professionalisation the days of characters in sport are numbered and what youngsters consider cult heroes, us oldies think of as "half the man (insert name of predecessor) was".

For Wales Scott Gibbs for me was a bit of a cult hero because he was a little different and because of:

His dump tackles. It was a mans game then.
His try in wembley v England
His ability to create holes because of his size at a time when centres were more dainty Jeremy Guscott type side steppers.
He was exciting in defence and attack.

LemonyVodka5 wrote:CHRIS BUDGEN!

What an absolute legend that man is! A super hero of the highest cult order

If I close my eyes I can still here the cheer he got when he scored for Exeter against Saints in 2010 from the entire stadium.

I honestly think the Saints supporters cheered louder than the Chief's!

That's the second very nice thing somebody has said about Saints fans on here recently. I have to admit to being surprised as I had the East Midlands all down as behaving like Leicester fans

Only joking. Leicester fans are passionate, noisy, travel in good numbers and are always up for a bit of banter. I never knew there was so much corduroy and brown leather shoes made though

just joking again!

leinsterbaby wrote:For Wales Scott Gibbs for me was a bit of a cult hero because he was a little different and because of:

His dump tackles. It was a mans game then.
His try in wembley v England
His ability to create holes because of his size at a time when centres were more dainty Jeremy Guscott type side steppers.
He was exciting in defence and attack.

Liar! The main reason is:

After a few pints he got up to all sorts!

Glas a du wrote:What makes a hero a cult hero is that the people that idolise him are in the minority, the idolisation is based on what the majority would consider an irrational or counterintuitive basis and the people who don't idolise him "just don't understand".

I would also definitly class the likes of Jonah Lomu and Sebastian Chabal - people who have developed a massive cult following and developed thermselves as a brand in their own right.

Mikey Rayer
-seemed to be everywhere, and had a great battle for the 15 slot for Wales against Tony Clemont also a personal fav for me was Hemi Taylor for Cardiff!

Mikey Rayer also donated his name as rhyming slang for "all dayer" as opposed to the more sedate Rupert Mooner "afternooner". Another Cardiff Cult hero 'feed me till I'm' Andy Moore.