Among them were English fans Paul Bessell and Andy Brooman, who, when the Otago Daily Times turned up at their camp site, were getting accustomed to a local delicacy - Speight's beer.
They had been planning their trip to New Zealand for about six months and would be here for "the duration" of the tournament.
With tickets to nine matches so far, they intended to see as much of the country as they could, which would include a road trip from Dunedin to Auckland for the final.
Shunning their national anthem as "droning" they had made the most of time spent travelling in their vehicle to practise other rousing songs.
"We had a bit of a selection of English hymns on the way down here," Mr Bessell said.
Another English visitor was Ben Taylor, who is in Dunedin with Scotland supporter and friend Ranald Torrance.
They had been planning their trip for a year and wanted to "see as much of the country as we can", Mr Taylor said.
They were pleased everywhere they went that "everyone is talking about rugby", he said.
Park owner Rex Moss said yesterday was "the big day" with campers arriving from 9am.
The camp's rented space on Tahuna Park has room for about 1000 sites, 550 of them filled yesterday afternoon.
Leith Valley Motor Camp site manager Wendy Renai said "a lot" of people arrived yesterday with a few more to come today.
The majority of them were English supporters, with just a couple of Argentinians.
"It's a nice atmosphere," she said.
