Escape to the Rugby
Chateau repair show TV star Dick Strawbridge is supporting the boys in green during their World Cup odyssey in France
IRISH rugby fans in the Stade de Bordeaux last weekend may have been surprised to see the moustachioed man from Escape to the Chateau sweating it out in the heat with them.
But Dick Strawbridge, despite the plummy British accent, is actually from Co. Antrim, having moved there with his family from Burma when he was a young child and is a proud Irish rugby supporter.
The former British Army Officer said rugby has been in his bones since he attended Ballyclare grammar school.
‘Being from Northern Ireland there is only one rugby team to support and that’s Ireland,’ he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘My ten-year-old son Arthur has embraced his heritage and when he trains in the local town, everyone else is in the French blue shirts except for Arthur who is proud to wear either an Ireland or Ulster, shirt.’
Mr Strawbridge and his other half, interior decorator Angel Adoree, became overnight reality TV stars after they purchased an enormous French castle, Chateau de la Motte Husson, detailing for viewers its transformation into a lucrative wedding venue.
Handily for the Rugby World Cup which
‘There’s only one team to support and that’s Ireland’
runs over eight weeks, the chateau is located in the Pays de la Loire region of north-west France, making it almost equidistant to all three Ireland pool stage games.
‘The Strawbridge men, me, my brothers David and Bobby, my older son James and Arthur, have all travelled to Dublin, and other Six Nations stadiums, to support Ireland, so when the World Cup is in France it’s a no-brainer to get to the matches whenever we could get tickets,’ said Mr Strawbridge, who headed the British Army military academy in Sandhurst and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1993 for his service in the North.
‘The crowd at an Ireland game are always lots of fun and it is really family-friendly.
‘In Bordeaux, it was an amazing melting pot. Apart from a good contingent of people who travelled from Ireland and made their support well-known and a good number of French people there, we chatted with English, Welsh, Scottish, Australian, Kiwis, Romanians, Canadians, Americans and some Italians.
‘Arthur and I are going to the South African match in Paris so that is our next boys’ outing! ‘Allez les Verts!’ Those Ireland fans hoping to join Dick and Arthur for the Springboks game will need deep pockets.
Tickets for the game at Stade de France in St Denis, north of Paris are reported to be trading for €2,000 and upwards on the black market.
All packages are sold out, and a one-way ticket with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Paris starts at €431 next Friday. All tickets returning on Sunday are sold out.
However, fans can still catch an Irish Ferries sailing from Dublin to Cherbourg next Thursday for just €248 with a car, which will have you in France by Friday morning, with Paris just a three-hour drive away.