DURING THIS YEAR’S Six Nations, we set out to find the Volkswagen Irish Rugby Fan of the Year by asking you to submit your best fan stories.
We had hundreds of entries, and we narrowed it down to our top six which you voted on to send three entries through to the judging panel.
After much deliberation, the winner was Eadaoin Balfe who won the following prize:
- An opportunity to meet one of your Irish rugby heroes as you present the Try of the Year prize at the Rugby Players Ireland awards
- A VIP weekend experience in Dublin for November’s Guinness Series, including match tickets and 5-star accommodation for two
- A signed Ireland jersey
Here are all the stories, starting with the winner’s tale:
Eadaoin Balfe – Honesty is the best policy
My wife, Eadaoin, has been going to matches for 40 years.
On the Wednesday before the Twickenham match this year, after Joe announced the team, we realised that we had to go. She could not support the team in the way she wanted to by sitting on the sofa.
So despite lots of warnings that we wouldn’t get tickets, we booked our flights.
When we got there it was Baltic weather, we walked towards the stadium constantly asking the other fans for tickets. Then we saw two tickets fluttering to the ground, the woman walking ahead of us had dropped hers.
Eadaoin picked them up and called the lady and returned her tickets. The guys behind us were jeering, they knew we needed tickets and couldn’t understand why we hadn’t kept them. But the fact of the matter was that Eadaoin understood what going to the match meant to real fans. Even English ones!
It really did seem that all the advice was right, there were no spare tickets and, in a last ditch effort, we headed for the ticket office and couldn’t believe our luck as there was a man standing in the queue waiting to return his ticket cause he couldn’t go. I begged him for his ticket for Eadaoin , he gave it to me at face value, he could see she was a genuine fan.
Then we couldn’t believe our luck whilst canvassing people for another spare ticket, Eadaoin said to a man in shamrock trousers that she liked his style, he told her he had a spare ticket, so we got the second ticket again at face value in the street outside the stadium.
Shane Tighe – Tennis ball shenanigans
Back in 2009 I was part of the Irish contingent that converged on Cardiff for the Six Nations finale with Wales. Our group of eight went over on the Friday night and we had only four tickets between us.
On Saturday morning we got to the ground early and by kick-off time, seven out of the eight of us had tickets. Only poor Mark was left ticketless. I was determined that we should all get in and hatched a plan.
We had met Keith Wood earlier that day and he had signed my match programme, so I delicately traced his signature onto my ticket, with the ‘Kei’ in the stub and the ‘th wood’ in the long part of the ticket. We then went up Prince’s Street and bought a tennis ball.
We borrowed a scissors and cut a slit along the top of the ball. I then told Mark to follow me down to the turnstiles. I went in the first turnstile and begged the operator not to tear off the stub as I wished to frame the ticket as it was an autographed ticket by a former Irish captain on what could be a historic day for our country.
After gaining entry I place the ticket into the ball and with the accuracy of a lineout throw that Woody himself would be proud of I lobbed the ball out over the fence to Mark. He went to a different turnstile and got to witness the epic game that unfolded.
Sinead Lawlor – Tears on the TV
My husband and myself attended the Ireland v Wales game in the Aviva in February and my daughter was unbelievably lucky to be mascot for the Irish team.
As we were singing Ireland’s Call I started to get really emotional — I always find I get goosebumps when the national anthem and Ireland’s Call are being sung live at any of the matches — and when your daughter is standing on that pitch with 51,700 spectators looking on and she is standing in front of what can only be described as a legend of a team my emotions really got the better of me.
I had literally just wiped away the tears AND a big snot that had fallen out of my nose when the camera landed on my face. Thankfully the snot had been wiped away but the emotions were written all over my face as I sang Ireland’s Call as one of the proudest spectators in that stadium.
So, long story short, I don’t mind looking like a spanner on live television for our legendary Irish team (and my legend of a daughter).
Mike McInerney – A long hot drive
In 1996 I was living in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Ireland were coming to Atlanta to play the USA. I found out about it quite late so the morning of the match my friend and I jumped in my Ford Escort and drove in a heat wave eight hours to Atlanta.
The car had no air-conditioning and we had no tickets for the game but I managed to get two outside the stadium, and Ireland won.
However, we didn’t have enough money to stay in Atlanta so we drove home again that night, a 16 hour round-trip.
Sam Brown – Mum’s the word
I go to games whenever I can but I work overseas a lot so I have to improvise from time-to-time.
I once listened live to Ireland playing Wales from the middle of the Amazon rainforest via a satellite phone (and I dread to think how much that cost).
My mum commentated the whole match to me down the phone and we ended up losing with one of the last kicks of the game.
I’ve also gotten a shamrock tattooed to my backside every time Ireland win the Six Nations.
I made a promise to my best friend at half-time in the French game in 2009 that I would do it in what turned out to be their Grand Slam year and I’ve kept it up since.
Gary Nesbitt – Lep’s leap of faith
I rarely miss a game at home and get to some away games.
I was in New Zealand in 2011 for Rugby World Cup and, during that tour, we went to Queenstown. Of all the Irish fans, I was the only one who volunteered to do the bungee jump dressed as a Leprechaun.
I was asked to address the crowd as my final act and pointed out that a wee Ulster fan was showing up all the Munster men. Mick Galwey took the bait and did the jump as well.
As I was standing at the edge of the bridge about to jump the guy in charge asked what I was doing as he hadn’t tied the elastic to me. That made me nervous but eventually I shouted “Stand up for the Ulster Men & jumped” (I survived).
Only time they ever had a Lep do the jump!
Volkswagen has been a proud sponsor of Irish Rugby since 2011.
