Travel agent Margaret Ramm hoping RNLI mascot brings luck to the Irish in France at Rugby World Cup

Along with her partner Philip McNamara, they’ll spend their days in a rented motorhome taking in Ireland’s game against Romania in Bordeaux, against Tonga in Nantes and their two games in Paris against South Africa and Scotland.

They’ve also managed to bag tickets to see many people’s favourites New Zealand in action against Italy.

Asked has being a travel agent made things easier to organise, Margaret said: “I think so, but I’m biased. In these days of the internet, it’s easier even for novices, but it does leave you without package holiday protection or ATOL cover.”

Explaining how she got tickets for the games, the Ireland fan said: “We are registered with the FFR (French Rugby Federation) as we’ve been to a few Ireland versus France matches in Paris and always got the tickets through the FFR.

“We got an email for Barclaycard holders for a pre-sale – we had two laptops open and we still didn’t manage to get tickets.

"We tried again the following day – three laptops and our phones and hours of watching the timer go round, constantly getting to 90% and being thrown back to the start.

"Eventually one of them connected and we managed to get the Ireland package – the first four matches. To say we were excited was a bit of an understatement.”

Margaret and Philip, who are both volunteers with Donaghadee RNLI, have taken a mascot with them called William, who is a teddy celebrating 200 years of the RNLI next year.

Asked how far she thinks Ireland can go, Margaret said: “We have to believe they can go all the way, but the heat is an issue for sure. Plus South Africa and Scotland (who are in the same group) can’t be underestimated.”

The Rugby World Cup begins tonight when hosts France play New Zealand. Ireland take on Romania tomorrow afternoon at 2.30pm (GMT).