MUNSTER RUGBY supporters have shown great ingenuity in the past in securing tickets for Heineken Cup matches in numbers well above their official allocation. Hopes of pulling off a similar coup for their European Cup quarter-final match against the Ospreys at Thomond Park on Sunday, April 12th, however, have run into a bit of a stumbling block.

The Ospreys belatedly noted a significant volume of applications from “new season ticket holders”, with Irish addresses who had applied to buy tickets from the Welsh club’s allocation for the game in Limerick. They have now taken steps to close the loophole, albeit Ospreys allocated tickets for the game have already made their way across the Irish Sea.

In a statement the Ospreys confirmed: “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.”

The statement further added that “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 and members.

“As per above, we will not be supplying additional tickets to Irish members, for those who have utilised their membership to secure two tickets already.”

The Ospreys official allocation for the match is believed to be a little over 6,000 tickets at the 26,000-capacity Thomond Park.