Munster fans face their biggest battle yet - to get tickets

Huge demand from rugby fans hoping to attend next month's Heineken European Cup final between Munster and Biarritz could mean…

Huge demand from rugby fans hoping to attend next month's Heineken European Cup final between Munster and Biarritz could mean they face an uphill battle to get to the match in Cardiff.

At one stage yesterday, Irish Ferries reported that its reservations website had crashed due to the number of people looking to book a sailing to the match at the Millennium stadium on May 20th.

The company's Rosslare-Pembroke service on the day of the match is already fully booked, although space is available the previous day, and on its Dublin to Holyhead sailings.

As both teams prepare to receive an allocation of 7,500 tickets each later this week, to be distributed among supporters, it emerged that two tickets to the final had attracted bids of €520 on the online auction site eBay.ie yesterday.

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Record black-market prices for tickets, some of which may have been bought by Leinster fans who saw their team beaten by Munster on Sunday, are also anticipated to be a feature in the run-up to the match.

Budget airline Ryanair, which previously announced nine extra flights from Dublin and Shannon to Bristol, has warned that these flights are expected to sell out quickly, even though fans will need to organise transport from the city to Cardiff. Aer Arann, which operates flights from Cork to Cardiff, said it expects to carry some 2,000 fans over the match weekend and is preparing to charter a number of extra flights.

Demand for hotels in Cardiff is also expected to be high, with many fans forced to make day trips to the city or to stay outside Cardiff itself.

All of the remaining 59,000 tickets for the match - priced from £15 to £45 - have been either sold or allocated elsewhere, according to a spokesman for the European Rugby Cup.

Cork sports travel agent Dawson Travel said that by yesterday afternoon it had almost sold out one of two specially chartered return flight packages from Cork to Cardiff on the day of the match which went on sale at 9.30am. Swansea- Cork ferries also reported that it had sold out all available places on its May 19th sailings, with heavy demand for its sailings on May 20th and 21st.

Pat Geraghty of Munster Rugby acknowledged that some Leinster fans might sell on tickets which they had bought, but he believed many of them would use their tickets to attend the game.