There has never been a sporting event better designed to get Irish fans onthe move than this Rugby World Cup, writes Shane Hegarty
When the television camera pans across the crowd at Ireland's Rugby World Cup opener against Romania this morning, there'll be plenty of smiles beaming through the green face paint. These won't just be down to the result, but to the fact that the fans are kicking off the trip of a lifetime.
When it comes to venues for its premier international competition, rugby has been blessed with options that read like any holiday-maker's wish-list. The World Cup took place in New Zealand in 1987 and South Africa in 1995. This year, supporters have the chance to follow the Irish team to Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, where it is early summer, there is a welcoming exchange rate, left-hand driving, English as a first language and some of the world's most famous sights.
Between now and the end of the tournament, several thousand fans are expected to fly from Ireland to Australia, joining those Irish already living there who have made the match between the two countries in Melbourne the tournament's quickest sell-out. Those at this morning's clash are the advance army. They include Belfast's Mark Spottiswoode, who left for Sydney on Thursday for a five-week adventure, in which he and his friend, Neil Allsopp, will drive from match to match in a rented camper van. With a week between games, they plan to take in a few sights as they drive from Sydney to Adelaide and on to Melbourne.
"I don't know how many miles that is," admits Spottiswoode. "I haven't worked it out yet." It's 1,600 miles.
Like many of the fans, they've decided to take in the second International Rules match and the Melbourne Cup, which take place in the same week as the Ireland-Australia World Cup game.
"I've never been to a Gaelic match in my life and I don't know much about horse-racing," admits Spottiswoode. "But we were looking at the package and thought it would be a great weekend and we can't miss the other events while we're there."
Between flights and van rental, Spottiswoode and Allsopp have kept the cost down to a relatively low £950 each. Even so, pre-holiday sacrifices have included "drink and food", although they expect that one of these will be made up for in the coming weeks. It's Spottiswoode's girlfriend, though, who has made the real sacrifice. She's not going on the trip.
"It wasn't an option," laughs Spottiswoode, who will celebrate his 25th birthday in Australia. "She did mind at first, but she wasn't so bad when she realised that this was a trip of a lifetime."
Yet there will be plenty of female supporters. Rugby might be a sport infamous for male-only trips and "what-goes-on-tour-stays-on-tour" ethics, but the exotic nature of this trip has made it particularly popular with couples.
Edel and Cormac Rowell married in July, but delayed their honeymoon so that it would encompass the World Cup. Tickets for the Australia match were particularly welcome wedding presents.
"Cormac was going to go anyway, so I thought I might as well go too," explains Edel. "It's such a big trip and we'd been looking for honeymoon ideas, but there was nothing else that had any meaning in it." They have the added nostalgia value of having first met after a rugby match in Sydney six years ago.
They'll be taking their honeymoon with three travelling companions and have arranged to meet other friends at the matches. Edel is not put off by the boisterous reputation of rugby tours.
"Cormac has been following Munster for years now, so I suppose it's a case of 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'," she says. "There'll be messing after the games, I'm sure, but we'll relax in between."
A two-and-a-half week trip will culminate in five days at the resort of Port Douglas (what Edel calls "the real honeymoon bit"), although if Ireland reach the semi-finals there may be a change of plan.
"Personally, I would probably get fired if I stayed, but Cormac might consider it, I suppose, if we get caught up in the atmosphere," Edel says.
It's a measure of supporters' expectations that most have not reckoned on the Irish getting further than the last eight. Dubliner Andrew Duggan flies home the day after the quarter-final, although he says there's "a distinct possibility I'll stay on, but it would have to be negotiated with my employers". Duggan is, as he puts it, "unhindered" by any girlfriend, so he will fly to Australia on his own and stay with one of a large number of Irish on working visas Down Under - in this case, his brother. He booked the entire three-and-a-half week trip through the Internet, including match tickets.
"It was very simple. I looked up the official packages but the prices seemed outrageous, so I did it all myself. You needed an Australian address to buy match tickets, so I used my brother for that," he says. In the end, he reckons it has cost him €2,300 so far, including tickets for three Melbourne events.
According to Abbey Travel, the only Irish agent offering packages to the rugby and International Rules games, most of those travelling to one event have opted for the other too. It will make for possibly the greatest "Irish" sporting weekend to take place outside of Ireland.
The organised packages, however, do not come cheap, ranging from €3,450 for a 16-day rugby trip to €7,250 for a five-night corporate package catching the Australia game and the Melbourne Cup. Then again, rugby has never matched the gritty romanticism of soccer trips. There are less likely to be tales of people pawning belongings or raiding credit union accounts if Ireland keep winning. This won't be Joxer Goes To Melbourne.
Abbey Travel says the cost is as low as it could get it, although hotels have hiked prices, and that it expects to have sold 1,000 packages by the tournament's end. Even this week it has been taking late bookings and it expects to continue doing so, especially if Ireland progress.
If you do have a late change of heart and an employer generous enough to let you go, bear in mind that the 2007 Rugby World Cup will include three matches in Ireland, which will make it a lot less exotic and a little less expensive to go to.
Fair dinkum: Oz in a nutshell
Some facts
While the ad said that Australians couldn't give a XXXX about anything else, Oz's biggest-selling beer is actually Victoria Bitter.
Burger King is known as Hungry Jacks.
This is box jellyfish season in Australia. It can kill in only three minutes. Only swim in designated, netted areas.
Adelaide is the favoured spot for swimming with great white sharks.
Rugby League is more popular than Rugby Union.
Some lingo
Come a gutser
Make a bad mistake, as in "Woodie's come a gutser and cost us the match!"
Not within a cooee
Figuratively a long way away - "We're not within a cooee of beating New Zealand"
Cut snake
Very angry - "Their prop's stood on Hayes and made him mad as a cut snake!"
Grinning like a shot fox
Very happy - "We've beaten Australia and O'Driscoll's grinning like a shot fox"
Kangaroos loose in the top paddock
Intellectually inadequate - "He's a great player but he's got kangaroos loose in the top paddock"
Shark biscuit
Somebody new to surfing - "With a white body like that, that Irish bloke is a shark biscuit"
