People buoyed by Ireland’s victory against the Aussies yesterday and suddenly keen to answer Ireland’s call can still get down under in time for the Quarter finals although the price will certainly put it out of reach of most.
This weekend British Airways is offering return flights from Dublin to Auckland via London and Los Angeles early next month for a total cost of €1,586.21 but there are only a very limited number of seats available with that airline at that price.
Assuming Ireland beat Russia and Italy in their next two games and go on to win Pool C then they look likely to face Wales in the Quarter Finals in Wellington on October 8th.
People would have to make their way from Auckland to Wellington for that encounter. Return flights from the two cities are currently available for around $500 (€300).
Unsurprisingly most of the good value accommodation in both Wellington and Auckland for match days were snapped up but we were able to source bed and breakfast accommodation on the official world cup site for the weekend of the quarter finals in Wellington for a not two shabby $300 (€180) for two nights. Accommodation in Auckland around the big match days costs closer to $200 (€120) a night.
All told, were Ireland to stay in the tournament until the last day and someone was to arrive over on October 7th, they could quite reasonably expect to spend €2000 on accommodation alone.
Then there are the tickets. There are four categories of ticket still available for the quarter final games. The most expensive, category A, tickets cost $491 (€295) while catergory B and C tickets cost $399 (€240) and $296 (€178|) respectively. The cheapest tickets for the quarter finals in Wellington are currently selling for $194 (€116).
Now, we appreciate that we may be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here and tempting fate but Ireland to win the quarter final tie then they would be off to Auckland, to Eden Park, the site of the historic victory over the Aussies, for the Semi Final on October 15th.
At this early stage it looks likely Ireland would be playing another team from the Northern Hemisphere, England or France, perhaps? Tickets for the semis will set rugby fans back quite a bit more than the quarter finals. The most expensive semi-final tickets cost $797 (€479) while the cheapest cost $296 (€178) .
All told then, someone keen to follow the team until the bitter (or sweet) end on October 23rd will spend over €4,000 on their adventure.
This is roughly the same as many of the die-hard fans who are already in New Zealand have spent. Many of them bought package deals which typically covered 31 days and will take in five matches including all of Ireland's pool matches plus two quarter finals. Prices started at around €3,500 and went up to over €5000 depending on the type of tickets and accommodation booked.
For the late commers the price tag of four grand doesn't even cover the cost of a ticket for the final (and again, we appreciate we are getting ahead of ourselves here).. Tickets for the final are no longer available through official channels although we would imagine that a determined and ingenious person would still be able to track one down
