Ingenius Munster supporters

GOTCHA! Several of those quick-thinking Munster rugby supporters who have come up with some ingenius ways of getting their hands on precious match tickets for big Heineken Cup matches over the years have been snared by the Ospreys.
You see some opportunist Munster fans were becoming members of the Welsh club in order to secure tickets form the Ospreys allocation for the Heineken Cup quarter-final clash at Thomond Park on Easter Sunday.
The Ospreys are entitled to receive a hefty allocation of 6,400 match tickets for the April 12 clash in Limerick.


So Munster fans, unable to get their hands on tickets through other sources, were opting to become an Osprey in order to ensure their place at the big match.
But in order to counter this, the Ospreys have devised a new policy on club membership applications and are refusing to accept applications from Irish addresses.
A statement on the Ospreys official website read: “Further to the release of tickets for our upcoming Heineken Cup Quarter Final against Munster on April 12th (1pm KO) and an inundation of membership applications from Irish addresses, please be advised of our new policy on membership applications.
“From this point forward, as it would appear a number of Munster (or at least Irish) Rugby supporters are purchasing memberships as a means to secure tickets from our allocation, we are NOT accepting any membership applications from Irish addresses.
“ERC regulations clearly dictate that we cannot ‘actively market... the tickets to supporters of the home club.’ It appears that a number of Irish rugby supporters have used our membership benefits to secure tickets, and we are hereby closing this loophole in our policy to all applicants from Ireland addresses.
“Furthermore, any requests for further tickets from members who joined on or after January 24th 2009, will not be processed.
If you have secured membership after this date, Ospreys Rugby (and by extension, the Liberty Stadium Ticket Office) hereby reserve the right (to ensure we comply with ERC regulations) to refuse the sale of tickets for this fixture.
“With an enormous initial take-up of tickets in the first week of sales, we are taking away the limit on the number of tickets that can be purchased by season ticket holders & members.
“As per above, we will not be supplying additional tickets to Irish members, for those who have utilised their membership to secure 2 tickets already.”
Targetting the oppositon’s allocation of tickets is nothing new for Munster fans. Take the home Heineken Cup final round pool match against the Sale Sharks at Thomond Park in January, for example. When a portion of Sale’s ticket allocation went on sale to the Guinness Premiership’s season ticket holders in the run-up to the game, and the demand was reported to be ‘phenomenal.’
Tickets on general sale were only available to supporters who were already registered on their ticket database and had bought a ticket to a Sale Sharks home match in the previous 12 months.
However, supporters were also offered another means of guaranteeing a ticket for the Thomond Park clash.
Supporters willing to buy a full price adult ticket for Sale’s home Guinness Premiership clash with London Irish earlier in January were also able to tickets for the Heineken Cup clash with Munster.
So scores of Munster fans availed of the offer, more than willing to part with the additional stg£16 to buy a ticket for Sale’s home league match with ‘Irish’- which the vast majority were unlikely to use- in order to get their hands on a ticket for Munster’s Heineken Cup tie with Sale. A bit Irish, but nonetheless brilliant.
Ospreys’ officials may have won this particular ‘battle’ with Munster supporters, but the ‘war’ for ticketless Munster fans will go on.

Colm Kinsella