Sir, – May I congratulate Dublin’s Aviva Stadium which operates a tour of our national rugby and soccer arena for the princely sum of €10 for adults.
This compares most favourably with the equivalent tour of the Stade de France in Paris which cost me approximately €700 on Saturday night! – Yours, etc,
A chara, – I am a very disgruntled rugby fan, having just got back from the farce in Paris.
I feel the fans were treated with contempt by whichever authority was responsible for calling off the match because of the manner in which it did it.
Player and fan safety have to be top priority; and I don’t blame the IRFU or the referee, if it was the latter made the call. Kick-off time or date should have been changed in advance; it is not as though the bad weather took everyone by surprise.
If the match had been called off earlier I would have no argument; I took a chance, knowing the weather was bad, to go for the weekend. However, it was the height of disrespect to allow the crowd assemble in the stadium and then leave people sitting there in anticipation with no announcement while they received messages from TV viewers at home, telling them the match was off.
My contention, rightly or wrongly, is that instead of taking the responsible decision in advance, they took a chance; having paid all the costs (police, security, food), they gambled on it going ahead, knowing if they cancelled they have all the costs again but no extra revenue.
I have attended 51 consecutive Ireland Six Nations games since 2001, that is every game every year home and away. The sequence was only broken back then because of foot-and-mouth disease when the fixtures had to be pushed back to September when I was touring Australia.
I am lucky I have a good job and could afford to go to the re-fixture, but on a matter of principle I intend to break the sequence as I feel all travelling fans were shown how much they are truly valued. My protest may have little impact on the commercials of the modern game, but it is the only form of protest available to me. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Sticking with the positives, at least we return from Paris unbeaten. – Yours, etc,