Gloucester braced for another Red tide

“HELLO Munster Rugby,” said the clear English voice on the other end of the line.

And for a few hours yesterday morning it seemed that Gloucester Rugby HQ at Kingsholm had been overrun by a battalion of the Red Army in readiness for April’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.

The club’s media officer is Alastair Downey — he of the dulcet tones who had developed his own witty answering system for the slew of 353-prefixed numbers appearing on his telephone display since 9.30am yesterday. And don’t even mention the 9am onslaught on the ticket hotline in an effort to get one of the 4,000 seats on offer to visiting fans.

Peter Grzonka, Sales and Marketing Manager was also busy fielding calls from the corporate sector.

“Our standard answer is ‘give us a chance.’ Less than 24 hours have passed since the draw was finalised. But we have had an incredible volume of calls from Limerick and Cork wondering about the availability of corporate boxes and hospitality. All of them make us promise that they will be the first ones we call back if anything is free.”

So Kingsholm it is. But was there ever any consideration of giving up home advantage and moving the game to a bigger venue for a nice cash day? “We’d looked at it. But our initial thoughts now are we’ll keep here. “We’ve had a lot of calls from Munster fans wondering should they book tickets for the Millennium Stadium. I know that there is major redevelopment work ongoing in Thomond, and we’ve completed a similar project here at Kingsholm. And that work is to accommodate days like this.

“The capacity of the ground is now 16,500 and there is increased corporate and hospitality facilities as well.”

Though Grzonka admits to being ‘relatively new’ to the job he needs no grinds on the relationship between Munster and his employers.

“The last time Munster came here, we heard stories of people offering £500 (€670) to stewards for their jackets in an effort to get in. We might have to put up barbed wire this time! He admitted: “It is fantastic. We had an ERC meeting in Bordeaux a year and a half ago and the games against Gloucester here at Kingsholm and over in Ireland were the ones which the Munster guys kept talking about. For them they were some of the great memories of the Heineken Cup. That gave me a great insight into the rivalry. They’ve never won over here, we’ve never one over there. It is all set for a titanic battle.

“It will be a great occasion here. Munster fans are famous, infamous or renowned for their support — our maybe all three!

Coach Dean Ryan is also relishing the last eight showdown.

“We did what we set out to do and that was qualify from a tough pool with a home quarter-final — there was nothing else we could achieve — and I don’t think that fact should be under-estimated for these players.

“History would suggest that being at home is an advantage but that means nothing unless we can produce a performance worthy of the contest and competition. We are playing a side with a remarkable Heineken Cup legacy. Munster are one of only two previous winners remaining in the competition, they have a rich and proud tradition.

“There is history between the teams and as a young squad we want to test ourselves against the best teams in Europe and Munster fall into that bracket. It is a show-piece European occasion and that is what we want to be involved in.”