The Namibian rugby team says farewell to their many Australian fans when they leave the country this morning.
It won't be long, however, before they catch up with two Aussies who have played a special part in their Rugby World Cup 2003 experience.
At their final gathering in Sydney over the weekend, the Welwitschias surprised their Team Liaison Officer, Gary Quick, and Assistant Liaison Officer, Michael Reyn, with the offer of an all expenses paid trip to Namibia later this year.
Gary and Michael have lived and worked with the Namibian team for the last month, travelling with them to their matches in three states. They spent months learning as much as possible about Namibia and their rugby team to prepare for their roles.
Along with the Namibians, Australia also says farewell to Fiji, Samoa and most of the Uruguayan Teros today.
Melbourne Cup frenzy
If you are thinking of having a flutter on one of the Melbourne Cup favourites but are put off by short odds Rugby World Cup betting agency SportOdds has devised a good way of getting some value out of the Cup favourites by formulating a number of Rugby World Cup 2003 - Melbourne Cup doubles.
At the time of writing, Mamool was equal favourite and short odds for the Melbourne Cup. However, a successful combination of a Mamool win and England winning the Final on 22 November was offering a better bet, Mamool-France paying handsomely.
Figures released by OzTAM show a peak national television audience of 2,107,000 watched the Seven network's live coverage of Australia's thrilling win over Ireland on Saturday. The average national audience for the two-hour broadcast was 1,755,207 viewers.
You're nicked!
The latest winner of Coca-Cola's Thrill Seeker competition is a Melbourne policeman who was making an arrest at the same time his location was being sought by satellite global positioning technology.
Constable Anthony Sheedy has a VIP package to the Rugby World Cup 2003 Final, a Peugeot 206 XRS and $10,000 spending money from Visa.
"I really didn't have time for it to sink in to be honest because I was at work and had to make an arrest in Richmond," he said. "I was thinking of what I had won somewhere in the back of my mind, but I just had so much going on that I had to put it aside!"
Boktown hits Melbourne
South Africa's "home away from home", Boktown, is to be extended to Melbourne this week prior to the Boks' eagerly anticipated clash against the All Blacks on Saturday.
Boktown has already proved a hugely popular meeting place for South African supporters in Sydney and Perth, and will be located in the trendy European Bier Café in Exhibition Street.
Boktown Melbourne is expecting to welcome members of the Springbok squad on Thursday night for an hour long autograph signing session.