IRELAND CAPTAIN JAMIE Heaslip has thanked the Irish fans for their support on their side’s World Cup journey.

Green-clad fans have dominated the stands for each of Ireland’s five games in the tournament – and even New Zealand’s quarter-final win last night – undeterred by the high ticket and hotel prices.

Speaking after the game, Heaslip took the moment to praise the fans for turning Cardiff and London green in the last few months.

“I’d just like to thank everyone that came out today and supported us, supported us over the last couple of months, last couple of years. This is a special group of players, a special group of fans and I’d just like to thank everyone very much”, he said.

Heaslip, who was one of Ireland’s strongest performers on the day, rued the awful Irish start, when they gave up 17 points in the opening quarter.

“It’s obviously very disappointing to lose in such a big game. We didn’t help ourselves at the start but we fought back, we came back in it and we just gave ourselves too much at the start.

“Argentina play a very expansive game. They stretched us, we didn’t make life easy on ourselves at times, fair play they took their scores when they got them.

“You know we tried to get back into the game, we got back yo three points, and they took their opportunities to kick on and we just couldn’t take our opportunities.”

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