First World Cup players arrive in Australia

5.00pm

The countdown to the fifth rugby World Cup began when the first batch of players arrived in Australia on Monday.

The first of two planes carrying Argentina's squad landed early in the morning in Sydney.

The Pumas decided to arrive on separate flights because there were not enough business-class seats to bring them all out together. The second group of players were due to fly in on Wednesday.

The remaining 18 visiting teams will arrive at various times over the next two weeks.

Wales land in Sydney around dawn on Tuesday before relocating to Canberra at the end of the week. Scotland, due to arrive the same day, will set up camp on Queensland's Sunshine Coast before moving on to Townsville.

Wednesday is the busiest day with Ireland, Canada and Romania arriving in Sydney, while France and the United States land in Brisbane. Georgia and Samoa also fly into Perth later that day.

Pool D rivals Tonga and Italy are scheduled to fly into Canberra on Thursday while Namibia get to Sydney the same day.

Six Nations champions England arrive in Perth in the early hours of Friday morning and Uruguay land in the West Australia capital the same day.

South Africa and Fiji arrive on Sunday, with the Springboks landing in Perth ahead of their Pool C showdown with England and the Fijians touching down in Sydney before moving on to Brisbane for their opening match against France.

Asian champions Japan fly direct to their north Queensland base of Townsville next Monday to prepare for the clash with Scotland.

Tournament favourites New Zealand will be the last team to arrive, getting to Melbourne on October 8.

Hosts Australia assembled at their training camp at a banana plantation at Coffs Harbour, on the New South Wales coast, last week.

They will relocate to Sydney on October 8, two days before the opening match of the competition against Argentina.

- REUTERS

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