Ticket row rages over allocation

There appears to be growing friction between Munster and Leinster over the way Leinster successfully disposed of many of their 10,500 tickets this week for Munster's Heineken European Cup semi-final against Wasps in Lansdowne Road on Sunday week.

Munster's understanding was that the tickets would go on sale tomorrow to the general public, thus allowing Munster rugby fans living in and around Dublin to buy tickets for what has become a highly attractive event.

The Munster Branch took some flak two weeks ago for the lack of tickets that went on public sale for their quarter-final game against Stade Francais in the more limited Thomond Park.

Munster have been allocated 20,000 tickets for the semi-final with Wasps and the ERC's allocation adding up to approximately 6,000 more. Overall, however, that should leave about 10,000 more tickets available if and when all current allocations are disposed of. Lansdowne Road has a capacity of over 48,000.

Leinster have adopted a pragmatic view of the distribution and point out that it is an ERC event, unlike last week, which was a Munster home match. The ERC asked the branch to sell the tickets and they did so through "priority booking forms" with Leinster clubs and season ticket holders. "We did it last year on the same basis for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. It is the way any club such as Celtic or Manchester United sell their tickets. They go first to people who have invested in clubs and hold season tickets, the stakeholders," said a Leinster official.

Yesterday, the Leinster Branch added that many tickets not taken up will also be made available in five Dublin outlets. Spar shops in Donnybrook and Bath Avenue, Active Sports in Blackrock Shopping Centre and Elverys in Dawson Street and Suffolk Street will have tickets for sale from 9 a.m. on Friday, while 2,000 tickets will be available through the IRFU at 62 Lansdowne Road from tomorrow. Ticketmaster in both Limerick and Dublin are also selling them.

The demand for Sportsground tickets for Connacht's home leg game against Harlequins the same weekend are also in big demand.

Only 1,500 ticketsare still unsold, with over 2,000 snapped up last week before the result of their first leg meeting was known.

Connacht will not announce a team for their Celtic league match against Ulster until today or tomorrow, although there are no serious injuries in the squad following the weekend's play.

Leinster, however, did name a team yesterday, one of the strongest the province has fielded since January of this year.

Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy will line out for the first time together in the centre for coach Gary Ella.

A selection of Ireland's Triple Crown winning players are also back in harness with Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan, Reggie Corrigan, Shane Byrne, Malcolm O'Kelly and Victor Coistello all coming into the starting side.

Four long-term injuries also appear on the bench - Leo Cullen, Emmet Byrne, Gavin Hickie and David Quinlan all hoping for a run out at some stage at Stradey Park.

LEINSTER (v Llanelli Scarlets): G Dempsey; S Horgan, G D'Arcy, B O'Driscoll, B Burke; F Contepomi, B O'Riordan; R Corrigan, S Byrne, P Coyle, M O'Kelly, B Gissing, V Costelo, N Ronan, D Dilon. Replacements: E Byrne, G Hickie, L Cullen, A McCullen, B O'Meara, D Quinlan, J McWeeney.