Ireland's Call to stir up World Cup team

The IRFU has confirmed that Ireland's Call will be the official "anthem" of the Irish team prior to World Cup matches in Australia rather than Amhrán na bhFiann.

Ireland's Call was composed and written by Phil Coulter specifically for the 1995 World Cup in South Africa and has been adopted as the rugby team's anthem for away games ever since, while doubling up with Amrhán na bhFiann for internationals at Lansdowne Road, as was the case in the 1999 World Cup.

"This is the standard policy for tours abroad or away matches, and will be again for Rugby World Cup 2003," confirmed an IRFU spokesperson yesterday. "Ireland's Call is recognised as the official anthem of the rugby team."

The IRFU has not appealed to the International Board for the playing of both songs, a request which would almost certainly have been rejected.

Australian requests for the playing of Waltzing Matilda in addition to their national anthem Advance Australia Fair, with even Prime Minister John Howard joining the campaign, were turned down by the IRB, which said it could only be played prior to the teams taking the pitch.

The Australians had cited the All Blacks' haka and other pre-match ritual challenges which are employed by Pacific island teams - Samoa, Fiji and Tonga - after the national anthems but the IRB has stated that "such challenges are performed solely by the players themselves, and are a long-established and indivisible part of international rugby tradition".

Meanwhile the IRFU has finalised the dates for the sequence of public meetings to address the issues raised by the consultative document drawn up by the Union's Strategic Planning Group.

A maximum of 400 people drawn from clubs, schools, branch officials, players, IRFU officials and members of the public will be able to attend each meeting, tickets for which are available from the four branches.

The purpose of the meetings is to give the stakeholders and general rugby public the opportunity to discuss the areas they feel are of greatest importance to the future of Irish Rugby, and give the Strategic Planning Group feedback on the consultative document.

Each meeting will attempt to address all of the key action areas identified in the Consultative Document, namely, the domestic game, the professional game, facilities, commercial & marketing development of Irish rugby, finance governance, leadership and operations.

The IRFU public meetings are scheduled for the following dates: Ulster - Wednesday, September 24th in the Park Avenue Hotel, Belfast at 6:30 p.m. Munster/Cork - Monday September 29th at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork at 6:30 p.m. Munster/Limerick - Tuesday September 30th at the South Court Hotel, Limerick at 6:30 p.m. Leinster - Tuesday October 7th at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin at 6:30 p.m. Connacht - Wednesday October 8th at the Radisson Hotel, Galway at 6:30 p.m.

Jonathon Bell will remain in Ireland to continue his rehabilitation from an achilles injury and accordingly Paddy Wallace, a member of the "shadow squad", will travel with the Ireland World Cup squad today for a week of warm weather training in the Spanish city of Bilbao.