Fans angered

A number of Leinster fans have been expressing their anger towards the Leinster Branch and the IRFU after the crowd congestion which blighted last Friday night's European Cup match between the province and Edinburgh Reivers at Donnybrook.

An unspecified number of supporters have complained that they were either locked out of Donnybrook after the turnstiles were closed at 7.00, or that, having been granted access to the ground, were unable to obtain any view of the game.

Other supporters who attended the game also expressed their frustration on Des Cahill's phone-in radio programme on Monday evening.

Amongst the claims made by some supporters were that, despite advance ticket sales, spectators who turned up on the night were being allowed to pay in at the gates up until 7.00, with no apparent restriction on the number of people being granted access to the ground.

Even some of those who did gain access to the ground left before half-time after failing to obtain any view of the match amid widespread claims that the venue was over-crowded. As one supporter put it: "What is the advantage of buying tickets in advance?"

The Leinster Branch chief executive Barry O'Sullivan conceded that there were problems on the night and said that they would "look sympathetically towards any people who had genuine grievances in terms of refunding their ticket prices.

It is believed that the Leinster branch will shortly announce a much-improved commercial sponsorship deal with ICC Bank.

This, ironically, would only mean changing one letter on their sponsor's logo as the current sponsors are ACC Bank, whose existing three-year deal is set to expire at the end of this season.

The new commerical agreement with ICC will most likely be for three years.