GAA: Ireland's international rules panel has been forced to abandon plans for a few days' break in Sydney after getting ensnared in the decision by Qantas to ground all flights.
After a fraught couple of hours, Atnhony Tohill's squad and staff stayed overnight in a Melbourne airport hotel before deciding to fly straight to Queensland’s Gold Coast for Friday’s second test.
According to the GAA’s Feargal McGill: “We were very lucky to get it sorted out so quickly. We were lucky with the hotel that we got. It could have been a lot worse. A lot of people were lounging around hotels without a room. We were all checked in by 8.30.
“The players are in great spirit. They understand that it couldn’t be avoided. They are still upbeat and there was plenty of crack in the camp.”
Although the financial ramifications have yet to be addressed, the disruption is not expected to be costly for the GAA. The airline, which launched the disruption as a pre-emptive strike against threatened prolonged industrial action and whose managing director Alan Joyce is from Tallaght in Dublin, is likely to bear the bulk of the costs.