The Australian men's volleyball team have arrived in Italy ahead of their maiden World League finals appearance.
The Volleyroos jetted off to Florence less than 24 hours after pulling off one of their greatest-ever victories over France in Saturday's group final in Sydney.
But it almost didn't happen.
Organisers, perhaps unconvinced Australia would win, hadn't booked flights for the squad.
Luckily, enough seats were found on Sunday night.
The Volleyroos have been grouped with host nation Italy and the United States, while Brazil, Russia and Iran will contest the second pool.
While proud of his team's success to date, national coach Jon Uriarte admitted his team had a big job head of them.
"It's going to be tough, but it's great that we've got a chance to play the best teams in the world," he said.
"As part of our preparations for this year's world championships (in Poland in September) we now have a chance to have a look where we are and keep learning and growing.
"All these young people will keep evolving and working hard and using the opportunity."
Uriarte said he was proud his men's efforts, especially on Saturday night in front of what was the biggest volleyball crowd in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
"The effort to keep working, to get focused technically, to learn to persevere, and to deal with the ups and downs and the pressure - it's young men trying hard, and it's beautiful to be coaching them," Uriarte said.
"To finally be in the situation, after 14 years we always have been playing away, and then finally we got at home the chance to show to Australians how spectacular our sport is. We want to spread our sport to Australia."
Australia, who've only once featured in the annual World League tournament - in 1999 - play the US on Thursday night (AEST), before taking on Italy on Friday.
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