Leinster fan’s video wins him tickets home from Canada

An Irish emigrant and Leinster fan based in Canada whose video has won him flights to Ireland "can't wait" to come home.

John Smith (24) from Castleknock, Dublin an entered and won the Leinster Rugby competition to ‘bring a fan home’ from anywhere in the world for the match against Northampton on December 14th.

The Toronto-based fan moved to the city in July where he is working in a restaurant. He has had difficulty watching the matches of his team and often relies on a twitter feed or RTE Radio feed.

He decided to make the video when his friend suggested it but they had “no plan” at the start. One of his room-mates did photography at school and could edit video, then they “made a little script” and “went outside to see what we could do”, he told The Irish Times today.

The elaborate video introduces John Smith and is entitled “bring home Leinster rugby’s biggest fan”. It shows the Castleknock native getting up in the morning, crossing off the days until the Leinster match and picking which Leinster jersey to wear.

It shows his efforts to set up Toronto’s only off season rugby team . “Being the only player has’t deterred him either,” the narrator says as the video shows him running around the field on his own in the snow.

The video shows him holding up cardboard signs on the street reading “Have you found BOD?” and “In BOD we trust” . He is later shown trying to thumb a lift with a sign reading “Donnybrook”.

Announcing the winner on its Facebook page, Leinster Rugby said "John's amazing video really caught our attention and we chose him out of hundreds of entries to come home for Leinster's big Heineken Cup match in the Aviva against Northampton Saints."

The fan has won two president’s box tickets to the match, two return flight and €1,000 spending money.

According to the video caption, Mr Smith has been a “passionate supporter of Leinster Rugby all his life” and is “currently pursuing a better life for himself in Canada”. He was “very surprised to win and that the video went “everywhere” so quickly.

The video has beem viewed more than 9,000 times so far.