With Google announcing their top searches of 2011 yesterday and being somewhat surprised that The Front Row Union didn’t appear in any of their lists I thought that we should have a look at the top searches on the site.
A little bit of a cheat as the searches carried out on the old Schools, Club and Women’s sites are no longer available but we did have over 200,000 search results to choose from so we thought we’d go ahead and start it off this year! I’ve discounted searches for the fru, the front row union and various parts of both, which did come out way on top, but here’s the best of the rest with some pretty interesting results
Top 10 Searches
Craig Gilroy has remained popular on the site since we flagged him a couple of years ago and he is the most searched for name, proving more popular that Ulster Rugby itself! Young starlet Patrick Jackson is not far behind but he’s going to have to work his way past those cheerleaders if he’s going to trouble the mercurial Gilroy in future years!
Surprisingly Stevie “The Beast” Ferris only comes in at eighth but that probably more of a reflection of his popularity in the national press rather than the parochial backwater that is the FRU. His tee shirts are our top seller so that’s all that matters!
| craig gilroy |  Pictures of the gorgeous pouting Ed with the Rockettes seems unusually popular! |
| ulster rugby | |
| ulster cheerleaders (rockettes) | |
| patrick (paddy) jackson | |
| paddy wallace | |
| school rugby rankings | |
| rugby transfers | |
| stephen ferris | |
| bryan young | |
| sharks cheerleaders |
Top Ten Current Players
Old Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble must have pretty hot wives as searches for their good ladies have substantially boosted the traffic on the FRU even though I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned them!
Robbie Diack has dropped considerably in the search results over the last few years as the young South African used to be way out in front bringing in a lot of traffic from his homeland. It’s good to see a few of the youngsters make the top ten, highlighting the depth of our coverage of the game in Ulster. Articles on these players just can’t be found anywhere else!
| craig gilroy |  Everyone has wanted a piece of Craig Gilroy since we flagged him a few years back! |
| patrick (paddy) jackson | |
| paddy wallace | |
| stephen ferris | |
| jerry cronin | |
| robbie diack | |
| conor gaston | |
| luke marshall | |
| blane mcilroy | |
| andrew trimble |
Top 10 Ex Players
Bryan “The Bear” Young is still the one we miss the most with Tommy Bowe slipping well down the table to ninth.
Great to see some legends in there like Rab Irwin and Justin Fitzpatrick our European Cup winning props and again teh depth of our coverage is highlighted with David McIlwaine, Finlay Bealham, Tommy Semour and Jonny Shiels appreciated here!
| bryan young |  There are still plenty who want to follow The Bear! The much missed Bryan Young now plying his trade in Italy! |
| david mcilwaine | |
| finlay bealham | |
| isaac boss | |
| tommy seymour | |
| rab irwin | |
| jonny shiels | |
| justin fitzpatrick | |
| tommy bowe | |
| tyrone howe |
Top 10 Ulster Women
I was pleased to see over 40 current Ulster and Ireland women players searched for on the site as coverage of the Women’s game is something we’re very proud off. Our old friends Lauren Day and Eliza Downey would have been way out in front if we’d still access to the old Women’s Rugby at the FRU site but this season they’ve been split by rising starlet Larissa Muldoon who shot to fame thanks to our coverage of her Six Nations exploits last January.
I expect Stacey Lea Kennedy, Ashleigh Baxter and Nikki Caughey to climb this table next year as they star for Ulster and hopefully Ireland.
| lauren day |  A star is born. Larissa Muldoon shot to fame last season with her appearances for Ireland. |
| larissa muldoon | |
| eliza downey | |
| ashleigh baxter | |
| stacey lea kennedy | |
| imogen porter | |
| zoe templeton | |
| sorcha chipperfield | |
| grace davitt | |
| claire mclaughlin |
Top 10 Bubbling Under
We’ve been immensely proud to bring you the best of Ulster’s youth and I’m pleased to see that Henderson and McGuigan are still getting plenty of searches.
Their careers have been somewhat plagued by injury this season but I expect both to make major breakthroughs by the end of 2012 and I also expect Stuart Olding and Conor Joyce to be the one we’re all talking about in this category this time next year!
| dominic gallagher |  Dave McGuigan and Iain Henderson, still very much two to follow in 2012. You have been warned! |
| iain henderson | |
| stuart olding | |
| chris farrell | |
| david mcguigan | |
| niall annett | |
| conor joyce | |
| conor spence | |
| sean o’connell | |
| peter nelson |
Corrections, comments or questions?