New Plymouth says goodbye to Rugby World Cup action

Ireland fans show their colours ahead of the IRB 2011 Rugby World Cup between Ireland and the USA on September 11, 2011 in New Plymouth. Photo / Getty

New Plymouth hosted its last Rugby World Cup match last night, an occasion met with sadness but also some relief.

Matinee barman Layne Rapira said the city had had a good run on match nights and the influx of international visitors gave the city a fresh perspective.

"People from every country has come through - Namibia, Wales, you name it. Everybody just clearly loves our country. It's great to hear from tourists how beautiful it is," Mr Rapira said.

"We take it for granted, and to have a new set of eyes look at it - it's like I forget it. We forget we can snowboard and surf in the same day."

A good-sized Welsh crowd had gathered in the city centre from mid-afternoon, and Mr Rapira hoped the celebrations would last a while.

"We've had a fairly good run. The Irish came through - they like to party and drink, and hopefully the Welsh are the same," he said.

The bar would likely fill up again to watch the big knock-out round matches on screens, but everything would pretty much be as New Plymouth usually was.

Grand Central Hotel general manager Wendy King said the hotel had hosted the United States team for 10 days and Namibia for four.

"It's been a lot of planning to get there. It's really good to see it go to plan, pretty much," Ms King said.

The American team had stayed for a good length of time and had a lot of family in support. Namibia - who played its final World Cup match last night - appeared a bit like they were ready to go home, she said.

"It's relief and sadness. In a way it's get back to normal. It's been good but it's been full-on," Ms King said.

"The town really got behind it."

She was glad the tournament had come to New Zealand - and to her corner of New Plymouth.

"It's good to have international guests here. Yes, they're here for rugby, but they're here to see the country too. It's nice to showcase New Plymouth," Ms King said.

"Most people don't know where New Plymouth is - a lot don't even know where the country is."

Welsh fan Philip George said he had been having a wonderful time at the tournament, based in Wanganui with his grand-daughter's family.

He had arrived four weeks ago and was staying till the end of the tournament, he said.

He had always played rugby and followed the home team - in a similar way to how New Zealanders backed the All Blacks, Mr George said.

"It's been tremendous work among everyone," he said.

He had enjoyed New Plymouth during the weekend and was relieved that the rugby match would not be as tense as the previous Wales games.

"The other two matches were emotionally draining," he said.

Wales scraped by Samoa 17-10 after losing to the Springboks by just one point the week before.

He only had tickets to the quarterfinals, but would still be touring the country during the final weeks of the tournament when his wife arrived to join him.

Wales had recently beaten England and other European teams, so they could potentially go far in the tournament - "who knows?" he said.