Queenstown Lakes District Council RWC co-ordinator Jono Sutherland told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the Irish team, which arrives in the resort on Thursday next week, had committed to attending a public reception at Queenstown Airport between 3pm and 3.15pm and an invitation-only Civic Welcome at the Skyline next Sunday, where the team will receive its caps.
"We asked them to do a lot more than that, that's all I'm going to comment on," Mr Sutherland said.
Several months ago Mr Sutherland had to prepare and forward requests for community engagement to each team manager for approval or otherwise.
However, even if a team committed to community engagement, it was entitled to pull out of any scheduled event 24 hours prior to it happening.
The ODT understands the English team have committed to visiting Arrowtown School and Wakatipu High School; the Georgian team has committed to a public airport welcome, an official civic welcome and a visit to Wanaka; with Romania committing to visit schools in Queenstown and Remarkables Primary School as well as public training sessions.
Mr Sutherland found out about a fortnight ago the Irish team had pulled out of the majority of the community engagement requests, after about 200 children from small schools around the district had been invited to come to Queenstown and meet the stars.
Pupils from Hawea Flat, Glenorchy, Garston, Makarora and Tarras Schools will be bussed to Queenstown for the 15-minute airport welcome.
Mr Sutherland said in order to make the most of their visit, Lakes Leisure had offered to host a pool party prior to the airport welcome, with the Queenstown Lakes District Council providing a picnic lunch for the children.
"The schools that do get left out are the ones that aren't in Queenstown. That was one of the first things I wanted to do - make sure the little schools don't get left out.
"When we found out [the Irish function would last] 15 minutes, we thought 'How can we make this better for them?'."
When asked if he was disappointed, Mr Sutherland said he was unable to comment further, but was "working very hard" on trying to find additional, alternative community engagement activities for the Irish team.
