Irish team heads off in search of World Cup glory

Today the Ireland rugby squad (including Tom O'Toole who spent part of his childhood in Ratoath) jetted off to France on a specially chartered Aer Lingus flight to compete against the best rugby nations in the world.

The specially branded Airbus A320, Green Spirit, departed Dublin at 12 noon and was flown by Captain Caolan Flanagan, who attended the same school as Ireland rugby captain, Johnny Sexton.

The travelling party also included team manager Mick Kearney who is from near Dunboyne. Aer Lingus has brought Home Advantage to Ireland Rugby matches since 2015 when it first became the official airline sponsor of Irish Rugby*.

Since then, the men’s team has departed from Ireland with Aer Lingus to all key tournaments such as the 2015 and 2019 tournaments in England and Japan, supporting travel to away games for Guinness Six Nations tournaments as well as supporting the women’s team with travel to the Tik Tok Women’s Six Nations and training camps. The airline expects tens of thousands of Ireland supporters to fly to France throughout the duration of the tournament. The team and management including coaches Andy Farrell, Mike Catt, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, and Paul O’Connell, ambassadors Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Robbie Henshaw and Josh van der Flier were photographed boarding the plane ahead of their departure to Paris