Paying a high price Anyone buying or selling tickets? While the touts will be looking to make a killing on what will be much sought after tickets for Ireland's Six Nations Championship matches against France and England at Lansdowne Road, their exorbitant prices are being matched on the internet.
One business in particular, The Online Ticket Shop is advertising tickets for sale for the Ireland-England game at Lansdowne Road. Category One seating, that's the East or West Stands to you and me, is priced at £425 sterling per ticket, Category Two seating (East or West Stands try line) a paltry £365 while terrace tickets are a snip at just £200.
Might seem like a lot of money but they wouldn't be charging those prices if they didn't expect to get the money. Makes the touts' offerings seem bargain town in comparison. They prices truly are famous.
Eden pitch problems
It seems that the IRFU is not the only rugby union experiencing a few pitch problems. Last week, New Zealand's most famous sporting venue Eden Park began a process to have its turf renewed at a cost of NZ$4 million.
The ground is situated in a hollow and was once a lake and then a reservoir. The Motz Stabilised Turf System has been installed following successful work at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the Gabba in Brisbane, Canberra Stadium and the Olympic Stadium in Sydney for the duration of the Olympics when it was regarded to as the key to the success of the soccer at the Games.
John Alexander, the Chief Executive of the Eden Park Trust Board said: "Eden Park is an international icon, but in truth the Number One Field hasn't provided a suitable playing surface for international cricket or Test rugby for years. Auckland's inclement weather and the field's poor drainage system have interrupted several international sporting fixtures, particularly Test cricket. In addition it has also not provided rugby players with sure-footed playing conditions."
The ground takes its name from Mt Eden, which in turn was named for George Eden, the second Earl of Auckland, the First Lord of the Admiralty and then the Governor-General of India. He was born on August 25th, 1784, on Eden Farm near Beckenham in Kent. He succeeded his father to the earldom in 1814 and died on January 1st, 1849.
Stop yawning down the back.
The work on Eden Park will be finished in March hopefully in time for the Auckland Blues first Super 12 match.
Wonder if they'll use that system in the new national stadium here in Ireland?
Castres cruise home
Jeremy Davidson's old mates down at Castres feasted on a hapless Dinamo Bucharesti in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup quarter-final. The Romanian side had a bit to do having lost the first leg 88-0 to Castres at home. Still it couldn't really get much worse.
After all they were bound to score in the second game. Not on your nelly. In fact they were 71-0 down and it was only half-time, Castres finally running out 123-0 winners. There's always next year.
Romanian reminder
Speaking of things Romanian, Leinster have been on to us to remind people that their open training session at which they will sign autographs for children and pose for photographs takes place next Sunday at Anglesea Road. Those that come along are asked to rummage at home and bring along some clean rugby kit, in good condition, that they no longer need, so it can be sent to Romania to aid players, children and adult to play the sport.
Italy make it easy
Irish fans looking to purchase tickets for Ireland's Six Nations Championship match against Italy at Stadio Flaminio in Rome on February 23rd can now do so online. The Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) have set up a new online system set to breach the language barrier for those buying from abroad for games against Wales, Ireland and France.
This year the FIR have taken the step of using the ticketing agency ticketone, the company who deal with Lazio and Inter Milan football clubs - making it easier for the expected large influx of foreign fans to purchase tickets for the matches, with their website also available in English.
Prices for the Wales and Ireland matches range between €18-78, with the popular French match seeing prices of between €20-85.
The new ticket dispensing agent can be contacted on www.ticketone.it
Clearing up CUS issue
We'd just like to point out that CUS did play with 15 players in last week's Schools rugby Senior Cup and not the 14 that appeared in print. Just to stop it becoming a quiz question in years to come, the missing name was Leonard Bolster.
Pres Bray's proud past
In our two-page Schools rugby special last Monday we highlighted the plight facing the smaller schools in Leinster citing the trojan work done by individuals including Brother Canice at Presentation Brothers College, Bray. We didn't mean to imply that he was the only one who tried to safeguard the school in difficult times, nor was he the only one to give selflessly for the good of rugby in the college.
Indeed in recent times Pres Bray, is enjoying something of a renaissance following lean times on the rugby pitches in the 90s, probably attributable to the closure of the junior school. A new rugby pitch will be ready by September 2003 at a cost of €200,000 and this comes on foot of a sports pavilion that includes changing rooms, a weights room and a golf room, opened in 1995. The development cost over €500,000.
There are indications that fortunes on the pitch could echo the halcyon days of the 1980s. The college has over 50 pupils playing rugby in both first and second year. Pres Bray's last triumph was the Richie Murphy-inspired team that won the Junior Cup in 1990, for the third time in five years. It was the fifth time they won the competition having captured the trophy in 1930, 1975, 1985 and 1988.
Pres Bray has just a single Senior Cup triumph, 1932 but has provided eight seniors internationals for Ireland including Aidan Bailey, capped while he was still at school, Maurice Mortell, Jack Doyle, Neil Bailey, Johnny Murphy, Tony Doyle, Johnny "Spud" Murphy and Reggie Corrigan.
Now that Bray no longer have to rely on the two-year leaving cert cycle that used to undermine their ambitions in the Senior Cup, they could once again become a school that the elite used to fear.
