Madam, – The allocation of tickets to supporters for the Heineken Cup semi-final has been the subject of much comment in recent days in both this paper and many others. However, the manner in which the Leinster Branch of the IRFU has behaved during this process has been particularly disappointing to the many of us involved in club rugby in Leinster.
I purposely refer to the branch by its full title of the Leinster Branch of the IRFU and not by some jazzed-up moniker like Leinster Rugby as it is clear that the Leinster branch have completely forgotten the pillars upon which rugby is built in this country – namely the clubs and schools.
Firstly, the Leinster branch has decided to allocate a paltry 5,000 out of 30,000 tickets to the clubs and schools; this works out at an average of 40 tickets per club. This compares to the 23,000 tickets given to the Leinster supporters club whereby members were able to purchase up to six tickets each, not taking into account the farce which led to 266 members of the supporters club receiving unlimited access.
On top of this the Leinster branch has had the nerve to send a threatening memo to all affiliated clubs that tickets are to be distributed to real Leinster supporters and that the selling of tickets to Munster fans could lead to ticket allocations for internationals being removed from clubs. Essentially the Leinster branch in its quest for the almighty dollar has given a stinging rebuke to the many people across Leinster who dedicate themselves to the promotion and running of the game through playing, coaching, refereeing, administrating, managing and maintaining rugby at all levels. Instead it has given the prize, or indeed six of them, to any Joe Soap in a blue jersey who has paid for a season ticket regardless of their involvement in the game.
Imagine if the IRFU laid down an edict that clubs could only allocate tickets to international games to Irish people. Such blatant xenophobia rightly would not be tolerated!
In these worrying economic times, one would expect the Leinster branch to at least give the very people it is duty bound to serve a fair share of access to tickets or the good grace to allow clubs distribute their meagre share of the spoils to members regardless of where they are from or who they support. – Yours, etc,