New Zealand All Blacks 1st-five Daniel Carter. Photo / Scott Yeoman
New Zealand All Blacks 1st-five Daniel Carter. Photo / Scott Yeoman
Fans inspired by French drubbing can grab cheap tickets but rooms in London are scarce
The All Blacks' high-scoring win over France had many Kiwis jumping for joy - and others reaching for their phone and wallet to grab a last-minute chance to see the team play in England.
Spokesman for All Blacks Tours, Matt Poland, said fans had contacted the company over the pastthree days to book everything from full tours to basic flights and ticket packages to the semifinal, bronze final and final.
"We opened the office on Sunday and ... as soon as the final whistle had gone, we had phone calls coming in from people wanting to book," Mr Poland said.
"Anecdotally a lot of people we've spoken to have said that they were waiting for the result. Other people have told us that they were just so excited by the result they just thought, 'I'm going to do it, I'm going to head over to the UK', and phoned us up. So just a last-minute, on-the-spot decision, really."
Mr Poland said most fans were keen to buy official tickets and packages from companies like All Blacks Tours, rather than going to the black market.
But finding accommodation in London for the game could be a struggle.
New Zealand area manager of accommodation site Booking.com, Tracey Foxall, said hotels within the Twickenham area are almost at capacity with occupancy rates of about 95 per cent.
"Although rooms are still available further afield, prices have been steadily rising over the past fortnight with the average cost of a room now $370," she said.
For those UK-based All Blacks fans wanting to now buy tickets to the semifinal against the Springboks this weekend, they may be in luck.
Illustration / Rod Emmerson
After the elimination of all Northern Hemisphere sides at the weekend, more tickets to the Twickenham clash on Sunday morning have become available; likewise for tickets to the other semifinal at Twickenham between Australia and Argentina on Monday morning.
The one legitimate Rugby World Cup resale ticketing site, Viagogo, has reported that since the home nations were knocked out, there has been a 47 per cent climb in the number of tickets listed on the site.
A representative for Viagogo says there are now thousands of category A and B tickets up for grabs, and selling for much cheaper than face value.
"Semifinal ticket prices have crashed as previously optimistic Irish, Welsh and Scottish fans seek to offload their tickets, now that their hopes of making it to the next stage have been shattered," the person said.
Category A seats to New Zealand v South Africa - with a face value of $1206 each - are going for $771.
Category B tickets are selling for $568 compared with a face value of $737 and category C tickets, with a face value of $503, are selling for $458.
The cheapest tickets, category D, are selling for $440 - more than the face value of $292.
Meanwhile, here in New Zealand, more people watched the All Blacks' quarter-final against France on television on Sunday morning than any other game so far this World Cup.
Figures sourced from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement show there were more than one million people watching live coverage on Sky Sport 1 (637,000) and Prime (416,000).
