Twickenham's price hike angers visiting fans

The English rugby union have introduced a £5 tax (€7.33) on every ticket bought by visiting fans to Twickenham during this season's Six Nations.

It means Irish rugby fans going to Twickenham on March 18th for the final match of this year's championship will be out of pocket to the tune of €40,000.

With Wales and Ireland making the journey to London this season, the tax means an extra €80,000 for the RFU coffers at the expense of travelling supporters.

The new policy is a reaction to a €10 price hike employed by the French rugby union for visiting English fans to Paris.

"A £5 handling charge on tickets for the Ireland and Wales games was put in place this year but it is already under review," confirmed IRFU spokesman Karl Richardson. "Now obviously we would prefer if there wasn't a handling charge, but that is what the RFU have in place at this minute."

Richardson stated the IRFU have no plans at present to employ a similar approach for visiting supporters to Lansdowne Road, or Croke Park, when the Jones' Road stadium opens to international rugby next February with the arrival of France and England.

The IRFU ticketing office were unable to confirm if an additional €10 was placed on tickets to last Saturday's game in Paris. There was certainly no "handling charge".

The Twickenham price increase only applies to the 5,500 tickets that visiting unions receive and does not affect the price of tickets distributed to English clubs.

Disgruntled Welsh supporters who attended the 47-13 defeat to England on February 4th brought this information to light - the Welsh rugby union were seemingly unaware of such an increase.

There were several complaints of single allocation tickets, which ensured many supporters were dispersed throughout the Twickenham crowd. And an unrecognisable version of the Welsh national anthem, The Land Of My Fathers (or Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau), also disappointed officials and supporters.

Six Nations chief executive John Feehan stated yesterday that the competition has no jurisdiction over ticket allocation or price range so it appears no action will be taken to hinder the £5 and €10 levy presently in operation by the English and French unions.

"I was not aware of this," said Feehan. "What individual unions charge for their ticket prices is really a matter for individual unions. We don't handle anything to do with ticketing as such."

However, the present scenario may lead to a similar two tier price policy being adopted by every home union. Already this is a regular feature in professional soccer, with some English Premiership clubs marking up their prices for visiting fans.

The English RFU supply 3,500 hospitality deals at £700 each for their Six Nations home matches - a total that already earns them over €10.7 million when they have three home games in a season.