Grand Slam fever grips Dublin

Bars in Dublin are expecting to pull around a million pints of Guinness this Sunday as fans flock in for the Six Nations Grand Slam showdown.

Thousands of fans are heading to the city for the vital decider in which England and Ireland will compete to be the tournament’s Grand Slam champions with five wins out of five.

Tickets for the game are reported to be selling for as much as €2,000 each.

Airlines faced with a huge increase in passengers travelling from the UK to Dublin have put on extra flights for the match.

Some 49,000 spectators will fill Dublin’s Lansdowne Road stadium for what has been dubbed one of the biggest sporting events in Irish rugby history.

Fans desperate for tickets to see the sell-out match have placed numerous advertisements in newspapers begging for either seats or standing room.

A group of 10 English businessmen paid €3,800 each for a block of tickets from touts, according to one report.

Concern about the price of black market tickets was raised by Labour’s consumer spokesperson Kathleen Lynch, who called on the government to call a halt to the practice.

“The intense interest created in the Rugby Grand Slam decider between Ireland and England has led to reports of tickets changing hands on the black market for multiples of up to 20 times their face value,” Ms Lynch said.

“The effect of this black market is to make it more difficult for ordinary fans to acquire tickets. It brings no benefit whatsoever to the promoters of the event.”

Paul Smith, of Santry in Dublin, said he placed an advertisement in the Irish Times in the hope of getting hold of a ticket in time.

“They’re asking €500 a ticket,” he said. “It’s far too much but what can you do? I’ll still get drunk watching it from the pub anyway.”

Douglas Myers, of south London, said people had been replying to his advert with offers of €1,000 and even €2,000.

“It’s the general public, not even ticket touts,” he said. “The Irish think we’ve got bars of gold. They can ask whatever they want for these tickets – you can hardly blame them though.”

Mr Myers said he would be travelling over to Dublin to watch the match from the pub even if he did not get hold of a ticket.