It's rugby for rules players



This was published 17 years ago

It's rugby for rules players

They were celebrated footballers one night and run-of-the-mill footy fans the next.

Players from the Irish and Australian international rules teams were at Telstra Dome last night, cheering on their countrymen in the rugby World Cup.

Almost everybody involved in the Irish squad - players, officials and members of the Irish media - had snapped up tickets to the highly anticipated World Cup match between Australia and Ireland. Some were still wearing their international rules uniforms.

Irish team spokesman Danny Lynch said tickets to the rugby match were bought months ago. He said most of the Irish squad were rugby union fans and some had even played the game themselves.

With the football out of the way, the players were looking forward to letting their hair down and making the most of their Australian visit, he said.


"The atmosphere in Melbourne is absolutely superb. It's like Dublin when our grand final is on. It's electric," he said. "I think there's about 20,000 Irish people out here."

Keen to savour the Irish-Australian flavour, several members of the Australian team took up an offer of free tickets to the match.

While many of the interstate players had returned home, Mark Bickley, Shane Crawford, Nathan Brown, Adam Simpson, Brent Harvey as well as coach Garry Lyon and match committee member Jim Stynes planned to be at the game.

Stynes, a Brownlow medallist and Irish import, played rugby as a child and said last night's match had been "on the calendar for well over a year".

While his loyalty to Australia was unquestionable during the international rules series, Stynes admitted he was faced with a quandary over who to support in the World Cup.

"I was born in Ireland," he said before the match. "But I'm sitting with a bunch of Aussies, so I'm under pressure."

Most Viewed in Sport