THE SEARCH for tickets began even before the final whistle sounded in Dunedin’s Otago Stadium as Irish fans scrambled to secure their seats for Ireland’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash with Wales on Saturday.
The stands in New Zealand’s newest rugby stadium were a sea of green with an estimated 25,000 supporters packing into the 30,000-capacity ground for yesterday’s clash with Italy.
The size of the Irish support, which appears to be growing with every match, provided a home- game atmosphere although a shaky first-half performance left fans nervous at the start of the second period.
Ireland turned it around after the break, however, and before long there was a feeling that the boys in green would be returning to the north island next weekend for a mouthwatering encounter with Wales.
While some fans will have reluctantly packed their bags already for the trip back to Ireland, others were only arriving and their timing could not have been better.
Enda Kilcullen from Mayo arrived in time for the Italy match and plans to stay for the rest of the tournament. “This was my first match and I’m staying until the semi-finals and we’ll see after that. I predict that we’ll beat Wales and meet England in the semi-final and if we win that one, I’ll be there for the final as well.”
Gillian O’Connell from Kildare says she was blown away by the Irish support. “This was my first match but I’m here for the long haul as well. It was a great night, a great atmosphere and the crowd was absolutely incredible. I can’t believe how many Irish are here. It’s great.”
Denise Durkan from Galway, who lives in Wellington, travelled to Dunedin to meet pals Enda and Gillian.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a while, waiting for the lads to come over so we could come down here and tour around and follow the Irish,” Denise said. “I’m supposed to be back in work in the morning but I think I’ll have to ring in and tell them I’ll be a little bit late.”
“There is a large Irish community in Wellington and we’ve all been waiting for the Rugby World Cup and it was great being here. The quarter-final will be in Wellington too.”
Stephen Connolly from Co Meath, who was also in Rotorua for Ireland’s win over Russia, said “the support was actually really emotional and people have paid thousands of euro to come out here and they have not been disappointed. It’s really emotional. It’s great to be Irish. I’ll have to go all the way now. I’ll be ringing work and telling the boss I’m going all the way,” Stephen added.
For Robert Cregan from Co Limerick it was all about the support. “The support here was phenomenal, absolutely unreal. We weren’t expecting the victory we got, we got an awful lot more. It’s great to be here.”
Avid Munster fan Laura Healy from Ballingarry, Co Limerick, said: “We came here on Tuesday and we couldn’t ask for a better start to our trip. The boys really pulled it out of the bag for us.”
John Carroll, also from Limerick said: “It was a great win but it’s killing me that I have to fly back home on Tuesday. God knows I tried but I just can’t swing another week but if we get to the final.”
GETTING TO WELLINGTON
Air fares to Wellington for next weekend’s Rugby World Cup quarter finals were costing almost €3,000 at their cheapest following Ireland’s win yesterday morning. Match tickets for the meeting with Wales were still available through the official International Rugby Board official website yesterday. However the cheapest seats, category D tickets, were already sold out. The most expensive, category A, tickets cost $491 (€295) while category B and C tickets cost $399 (€240) and $296 (€178) respectively. The cheapest flights available yesterday were with British Airways. A 35-hour haul leaving on Wednesday with stops in London, Hong Kong and Melbourne, returning on Sunday cost €2,714. Tour operators have said they will be offering new packages, including ones for the semi-finals and finals today.