IT’S LONG BEEN a favourite of students, nurses, culchies and international rugby stars.

Now we know that Copper Face Jack’s is the Dublin nightclub of choice for Australia’s footie stars.

Scout Ricky Nixon revealed in the Irish Daily Star today that, rather than prepare for their crucial second Test with Anthony Tohill’s Ireland team last month, Australia’s International Rules representatives were preoccupied by the capital’s nightlife – and in particular one infamous Harcourt Street hostelry.

He told Karl O’Kane:

The Irish have got a lot more to play for  because they are trying to knock off the professionals whereas the Australians are more interested in going to Copper Face Jack’s.

I’m serious. They kept texting me about Copper Face Jack’s, not about the game.

A lot of players that came said to me they wouldn’t come again. They just came once mainly to go to Ireland and look around. From the Australian end it’s if we can get a free trip to Ireland.

If it was played in Australia there wouldn’t be a lot of interest, not from the real supporters of the game. Without discrediting our team that went over, it didn’t have the superstars of the AFL.

It had a few, but with the greatest respect, it was a pretty young team and a fairly athletic team. The Irish are probably going to put in their best team.

No one from Coppers was available to comment when contacted this afternoon, we were told.