All Blacks v Wallabies semifinal sparks Rugby World Cup ticket frenzy

A few hundred fresh tickets are to go on sale this week. Photo / APN

Ticket sales are soaring towards a sell-out and flights from Australia are filling up in anticipation of the looming transtasman Rugby World Cup semifinal clash.

The All Blacks will meet the Wallabies in their World Cup semifinal at Eden Park on Sunday.

The game - regarded by some as the World Cup final one game early - has sparked a frenzy of ticket swapping, corporate bookings and betting - most of it for a Wallaby win.

The Australian's gutsy defeat of the Springboks on Sunday was spread across their country's front pages yesterday, and ticket agents say it led to an immediate surge of interest.

Total Sports Travel general manager Mike Jones said Wallaby fans would be streaming across the Tasman on the company's travel packages.

"Interest has definitely picked up - a lot of us will be over there at the weekend. We had a significant increase [in sales] from Sunday night ... It was quite a lot," Mr Jones said.

"People have been waiting for the business end of the tournament and seeing how Australia would go. And Australia-All Blacks always draws a crowd."

The travel agency still had enough tickets to bring over many more Australian supporters, he said.

Jetstar spokeswoman Jennifer Timm said many flights to Auckland this weekend were fully booked and the others were nearing capacity.

"We expect there may be some last-minute bookings over the next few days following the results from the weekend, with Australians travelling across the Tasman for the showdown between the Wallabies and the All Blacks, as well as All Blacks supporters travelling home for the big event," Ms Timm said.

Rugby Travel and Hospitality, which oversees sales of corporate packages, said Australian companies had made a rush of hospitality bookings.

"We have seen a noticeable increase in last-minute sales since the semifinalists were confirmed," said spokeswoman Joelle Talbot.

Most of the hospitality packages have now sold out - the Eden Park pavilion, erected just west of the stadium, has been fully booked, and pre-match functions at top city hotels are full.

The remaining options are down to two Sky Boxes, 50 club hospitality packages and several $1000 bar hospitality packages, based at Vector Arena.

Ms Talbot said all packages would probably be gone by the end of today.

Tournament spokesman Mike Jaspers said increased sales had all but exhausted publicly available tickets to the match.

But organisers were now talking to teams to finalise how many seats they needed to have reserved.

"Once we know that, we'll be able to free up more tickets on Wednesday or Thursday. But we're talking a very low number - hundreds, maybe," Mr Jaspers said.

The TAB also reported increased betting since Sunday night, most of it favouring the Australians - at almost double the odds of New Zealand.

WHAT'S LEFT?

Category A
Single seats only - $800

Category B
Seats with impeded views - $560

Hotel package
Three nights at the Copthorne and tickets to both games - $4360

Travel package
Ticket plus transport - through travel agencies

Club package
50 left - $1900

Bar package
Ticket plus pre-match drinks at Vector Arena - $1000

"Sky Box" package
Only two left - $4000

A few hundred fresh tickets are to go on sale this week