Rugby World Cup: Tickets to Twickers harder to find than leftover chicken after Tonga visit Nandos

GOT a spare eight grand? That’s what it could cost you to get a ticket to the Wallabies-England blockbuster at Twickenham.

GOT a spare eight grand? That’s what it could cost you to get a ticket to the Wallabies-England if you were hunting up a late seat at the Twickenham blockbuster.

The game is not only sold out, it could have been sold out 10 times over. There were over 600,000 applications to buy the 60,000 available seats. (Twickenham holds 82,000).

Reports this week in the UK said ticket resale site viagogo had broken its record for most expensive ticket for a non-finals game, with a fan paying over 4000 pounds for a good seat.

That beats Wimbledon and the FIFA World Cup.

***

TONGANS love chicken. That much is clear after the Tongan team visited Nandos in Devon for ten days straight ahead of their game against Namibia. Some players went twice a day.

But while peri-peri bird is fine, dirty bird is not. Samoa were banned by their coach from visiting KFC across the road from their Milton Keynes hotel.

***

THE power of Twitter. Less than 24 hours after Drew Mitchell posted a request to see if anyone knew where he could buy an old PlayStation and a copy of the Jonah Lomu Rugby game in London, rookie Matt Giteau posted a picture of the purchased items.

It was Giteau’s 33rd birthday yesterday. Present perhaps?

***

THERE was a fascinating interview between 2003 antagonists Clive Woodward and Eddie Jones in the Daily Mail this week.

Jones on Cheika:

“Robbie Deans before him was a great technical coach but I think Australia lacked a bit of identity.

Australian sport is about being a bit brash and arrogant, doing things differently and Cheika understands all that. Getting Gits and the others back from Europe was smart.”

And Jones on Lancaster: “To me he doesn’t look 100 per cent sure of exactly how he wants England to play — you can see that from his different selections.”

***

URUGUAY’S side are struggling to score points but they’re not lacking in iron at the World Cup, with 30 kilograms of fresh beef being sent into their camp each week from home. The South Americans love their barbecues, or asadas, and the beef is being organised by the Uruguayan National Meat Institute. Now that’s an institution.

***

REMEMBER when you were under the dreaded line at the amusement park and couldn’t get on the rides? Ireland’s giraffe-sized lock Devin Toner discovered there is a line way, way, way above that too. The 208cm beanpole was turned away from rides at Alton Towers, an amusement park in Staffordshire, during a visit by the Ireland team on their day off. He was way too tall.

THE Queensland Reds are making a play for talented Melbourne Storm under-20s halfback Mack Mason.

Originally from Brisbane with a union background, Mason is being eyed as a future star playmaker in Super Rugby.

***

THE in-depth interviews on the show Rugby Legends on FoxSports have been intriguing viewing so far, and we reckon there will be a few coaches at the World Cup interested in Sunday’s feature on Rod Macqueen.

Boasting the best record against the All Blacks of any coach, Macqueen reveals how he instilled the great Wallabies team of the late 1990s and early 2000s with the confidence to consistently beat the Kiwis, a feat which no team has managed since.

It will certainly take a special team brimming with self-belief to stop the All Blacks at this World Cup.

Rugby Legends with Rod Macqueen airs Sunday at 6.30pm on FoxSports 2.

Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Tickets to Twickers harder to find than leftover chicken after Tonga visit Nandos