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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark McCadden

World Cup Diary, Day 1: Skidmarks... and not just on the runway

The players are well on their way to smashing through the jet lag brought on by the long, long trip Down Under.

But for your intrepid roving reporter, it might not be so easy.

That’s because the journey, which began late on Monday with a 10pm (seven-hour) flight to Dubai, didn’t end until around 1pm on Wednesday, Aussie-time.

Everything was going to plan until the second-leg of the trip, a 14-hour stretch to Brisbane, was halted suddenly and dramatically halfway down the Dubai airport runway.

With the Emirates double-decker plane hurtling towards take-off speed, the giant, hulking beast came screeching to a halt.

There were skidmarks - and they weren't just confined to the runway!

After a couple of minutes of nothing, we slowly set off again back towards the terminal.

As we approached our stand, the captain came on to inform us that a “technical issue” led to him deciding to abort take-off.

Engineers inspected the situation, while the 500-plus passengers waited on-board for an update.

Eventually we were told that a replacement Airbus A380 would have to be sourced and it was back into the terminal for a bunch of already-fatigued flyers.

When we finally landed in Brisbane, there was just about time for a quick change of clothes and a liberal application of deodorant, in lieu of a much-needed shower, before grabbing the first taxi out to training.

Luckily for Vera Pauw and her players, our first media engagement took place in open air, pitchside in Meakin Park, rather than indoors.

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