Rugby World Cup: ‘I think there will be a lot of anxiety and pints being drank’

Yvonne Tyndall remembers the first time she watched an Ireland World Cup rugby game with her dad in 1995.

“We lived in Africa at the time so I was very small,” she thinks back. “I remember South Africa won the World Cup but that’s all. We weren’t great, we’re a lot better [now].”

Such was the general enthusiasm at Dublin Airport on Friday as supporters in green tops and scarves ambled through check-in for one of a number of flights to Nantes where Ireland will face Tonga in their second game on Saturday of the Rugby World Cup.

Yvonne and her father Greg are ardent rugby fans, and she decided a trip to celebrate their mutually “roundy” birthdays – 40 and 70 – was timely in the spirit of the game they love together.

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Like many travelling fans, they will hang around for the South Africa clash in Paris next week, taking in some sights and quietly hoping for far better things than 1995 or since.

“A lot of rain apparently,” Greg says of his expectations for Saturday before instantly turning to more serious matters than weather. “A tough match. They won’t easy,” he admits.

“[They] have now upped their game from what they used to be before. I know last week was a bit of a strange result; Romania used to be a very good team. Now I expect a tough match, and I expect a few injuries.”

At another corner of the airport, Rachel Lawlor (26) is on her way to France with boyfriend Andrew Byrne (28) and a coterie of friends, adorned in various Ireland kits.

“There was supposed to be other girls and all of a sudden they’ve all dropped out ... I’m going to have to be the mammy of the group,” she laughs – but no matter, she is eager to watch her team and soak up the atmosphere before heading on to the South Africa game.

“I think there will be a lot of anxiety and a lot of pints being drank to ease the nerves. But I think we’re going to do well, I just have a feeling we’re going to do well.”

Andrew coolly assesses Ireland’s chances in advance of the knock-out stages. “If we can navigate the South Africa game, I think anything after that is possible.”

Fans expect rain in Nantes but that might be preferable to the baking heat of the Romania game when fans huddled in any hint of available shade.

In fact, there is little that can dampen the joie de vivre at Dublin Airport departures – even the recent reports of logistics issues at French rugby grounds do not seem to bother anyone.

Felicity Keane is one of a number of fans travelling to take in the match but also to raise money for the IRFU Charitable Trust, which supports players seriously injured in the game.

Where her travelling companion is doubtful of Ireland’s chances, applying with some authority the concept of sports psychology and Ireland’s grim World Cup history, Felicity is keen to take off in a cloud of optimism, to an extent.

“My biggest hope is that they’ll just go one step further than they have before,” she says of passing the quarter finals. “I think I’m a realist. I’d be so happy if they get [that far] but I do not see them getting into the final.”

Brother and sister rugby fans Aisling and Aaron Foley are beaming at the prospect of taking their support out of Dublin for the first time.

Aisling says they had tickets for three group games but sold two. Still, if Ireland looks like doing the unmentionable, it could be a World Cup good enough to make a return trip next month.

“I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to miss out,” she laughs. “I’ll make it happen no matter what.”