There is growing annoyance in Munster over the allocation of European Cup final tickets. Having received 20,000 tickets, the Munster Branch last weekend sold off 3,000 to the public, and clearly could have sold many more as people camped out over night at Thomond Park before being turned away empty-handed.

Approximately 26,000 of the 72,500 Millennium Stadium seats were sold by the ERC before the European Cup semi-finals were even played, which limited the number available for Munster and English finalists Leicester.

Of the 20,000 tickets allocated to Munster, approximately 16,000 went to the Munster Supporters Club, Irish rugby clubs and travel agents, with the remaining 3,000 sold at venues in Limerick and Cork.

"On the Friday morning there were about 1,500 people at each of the centres," a Munster official said yesterday. "Each person usually looked for two tickets, which is all they could get, so the first 700 or 800 people got the tickets.

"At Thomond Park, the first person arrived at 9.45 on Thursday morning," he continued.

"The public sale was significantly over-subscribed, but selling 26,000 tickets before the semi-final immediately created a ticket problem.

"Originally it was 14,000, then they told us it would be 20,000, and finally we were told they'd sold 26,000 tickets.

"There was a month before the semi-finals and final. The tickets could have gone on sale to the two finalists first. Munster are the biggest supported team in Ireland and Leicester are the biggest supported in England.

"We would have liked to think that those people who travelled to support us in Beziers would have been catered for in the Millennium Stadium."

Munster have scheduled open days for the public. The first is this afternoon at 4.0 at Thomond Park, Limerick, while the second is at 3.0 on Friday at Musgrave Park, Cork.

FIXTURES: Saturday, May 18th, Munster Senior Cup Final - Shannon v Young Munster, Thomond Park, 3.0. Sunday, May 19th, Munster Junior Cup Final - Kilfeacle v Crosshaven, Thomond Park, 3. 0.