Mix-up regrettable - ERC chief

The ERC chief executive, Derek McGrath, has voiced his regret over the ticketing policy at the gates of Lansdowne Road for last Saturday's Heineken European Cup final, when hundreds of supporters, mostly underage, were reportedly turned away.

Supporters were informed from 2.30 p.m. onwards that all terrace tickets were sold out, even though there appeared to be plenty of space on the terraces, and that the only tickets available were premium stand tickets for €48, despite an attendance of 28,600, some way short of the reduced 40,000 capacity.

Furthermore, despite confirming that tickets would be available at the turnstiles on the day, the ERC had not stipulated that advertised packages of four (at €17 per person) would not be available.

With no additions to the 1,200 designated schoolboy tickets, which had been sold well in advance, this meant that only €48 tickets were available.

Some, such as one man who brought his wife and three children, had to fork out €240, while two more who had €90 between them were refused entry until others in the queue gave them an additional €6. But many seem to have just turned away and decided not to attend the match.

"There were other price tickets available and whatever other tickets were left were put on sale," maintains McGrath, though he admits this amounted to less than 600, which were snapped up well over half an hour before the kick-off.

"There were still gaps on the terraces. Tickets had been distributed but for whatever reason people did not use them," he said.

Having already sold 6,000 tickets at the initial pricing structure as far back as January, McGrath made the point that "we couldn't reduce our prices. You can't do that, from a commercial point of view, especially when you've sold at one price. Of course we did promotions and discounts to get people there."

McGrath also admitted there had been "difficulties" with the Ticketmaster outlets, with supporters complaining that no tickets were obtainable from that source in the days leading up to the final.

As for the match-day arrangements, it had been a joint venture with the IRFU, though the ERC were the ultimate decision-makers and McGrath admitted it had been an ERC decision not to sell packages of four on the day, because "it would have been too difficult logistically".

McGrath admitted that the Heineken Cup organisers would have to learn from this season's experiences, particularly with regard to the knock-out games in Lansdowne Road, and said it was "clearly not" an ideal scenario that supporters were turned away. "It is regrettable that people felt that they would go home," he conceded.

Mark Robinson (27), the former New Zealand scrumhalf, signed for English Premiership side Northampton yesterday.

Robinson won three Test caps - against England (1998), Scotland (2001) and Argentina (2001) - and scored a try for the Barbarians against England at Twickenham last weekend.