Leinster to increase capacity at the RDS

LEINSTER ARE increasing the capacity of their ground at the RDS to 20,000 for their home quarter-final match against French side Clermont Auvergne on April 9th. The current capacity of the stadium is over 16,000 but the club believe that a greater number of seats is needed because of an anticipated huge demand for tickets.

French supporters are notoriously bad travellers and Leinster expect a significant return of tickets to Dublin. As it stands with ERC regulation for the knockout stages of the competition, the visiting team is entitled to 25 per cent of the ground capacity.

While Leinster don’t expect a big take-up from the French, they will know next week just what the numbers are as there is an obligation to return tickets no later than two weeks before the match to ensure time for redistribution.

“We are going to expand the north and south ends (behind the goal areas) by adding in extra seating,” said a Leinster official. “The demand is going to be huge. There hasn’t been a home quarter-final since Leinster lost (13-29) to Leicester Tigers in Lansdowne Road under Declan Kidney.”

A crowd of 48,500 turned up for that game at the old stadium.

Season ticket holders will get priority for any excess from France as Leinster cannot plan for a home quarter-final before the season begins so no provision has been made. In Leinster’s favour, though, there is the mitigating factor of a big match for Clermont on April 3rd, when they face Stade Francais in Paris in the French Championship.

Some French teams would see the championship as important, if not more so, than the European competition. The likelihood is that travelling fans who make the trip north from Clermont to Stade de France would not make another journey to Dublin a week later.

“We will know next week how many tickets are coming back,” said the Leinster official. “The obligation is to know two weeks in advance of the fixture. We do expect a lot of returns from Clermont.”

Munster has no such unknowns and they can expect to have 22,000 fans supporting them when they meet English side Northampton in their Heineken Cup quarter-final a day later on April 10th. Northampton expect that 4,000 of their fans will travel from England to the 26,000-capacity Thomond Park for the match.

They have already returned the unsold tickets, which Munster will now pass on to their own fans for the match. According to the Munster Supporters website those limited tickets will be used for existing Munster contractual commitments.

“We’re looking at 4,000 travelling fans, which is normal for a match of this size,” said a Northampton official. “All the tickets have gone back as far as we know.”

With regard to the Munster home game against Leinster in the Magners League on Good Friday, a court decision on the granting of a special exemption to pub closure has been deferred until today. Judge Tom O’Donnell made the decision following an application by pub owners in the Limerick District Court.

The judge said that he had a considerable amount of case law to consider as part of the application. Pub owners say they could lose as much as €6 million in trade brought into the city by the sell-out match. Thomond Park, however, will be permitted to sell alcohol and any decision by Judge O’Donnell could affect their financial take on the day.

“Saturday was our optimum day for the match, not Friday,” said a Munster official “and even more so under these circumstances. We fully recognise the worth of the game to the commercial interests of the city especially in these times. Don’t forget the original scheduled time for the match was 5pm and we had that changed to 8pm.”

England coach Martin Johnson has said his coaching team will remain intact for the summer tour to Australia after branding England’s critics “ill-informed”.

Johnson once again mounted a robust defence of his backroom lieutenants John Wells, Brian Smith and Mike Ford after England finished a deflating third in the Six Nations.