A number of tickets for Munster's eagerly anticipated Heineken European Cup semi-final against Wasps in Lansdowne Road on Sunday week went on sale today.
There has been confusion over the distribution and availability of tickets this week, which resulted in sizable queues forming at the usual outlets; IRFU headquarters at Lansdowne Road, Spar, Donnybrook, and the Ticketmaster kiosk in St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.
Due to the volume of demand considerable queues also formed at Musgrave Park in Cork and Thomond Park in Limerick after tickets went on sale there today.
The IRFU confirmed to ireland.com tickets did go on sale from their headquarters and the St Stephen's Green outlet today but would not disclose exactly how many. Tickets did not go on sale from the Spar in Donnybrook.
The confusion appears to have started when the Munster branch originally applied for 20,000 tickets from the ERC, the tournament organisers, while the Leinster branch successfully obtained 10,500 tickets.
The Leinster branch then opted to sell their allocation through "priority booking forms" with Leinster clubs, season tickets holders taking up the majority of tickets.
Many supporters had thought more tickets should have gone on general sale to facilitate Munster rugby fans living in and around Dublin.
But given that the semi-final is treated as an ERC event, unlike Munster's win last weekend which was a home game at Thomond, the Leinster branch were asked by the ERC to sell their allocation. And they did so by typical methods, looking after the grassroots club supporters.
A spokesperson for the Leinster branch confirmed today that the remaining tickets from Leinster's allocation, somewhere in the region of 2,500 tickets, will now go on sale from five outlets from 9 a.m. tomorrow. They are; Elvery's, Dawson Street and Suffolk Street; Active Sports, Blackrock; and the Spar outlets in Donnybrook and Bath Avenue.
Wasps and the ERC combined requirement for the match is 6,000, which added to the two province's allocation amounts to about 38,500 tickets already spoken for.
Given the fact Lansdowne Road has a capacity of 48,000 it is believed there will be somewhere in the region of just under 10,000 tickets left to still go on general sale next week.