Fans still have faith in us, says Ireland manager

IRELAND manager Paul McNaughton does not believe that the national rugby team have lost the backing of their supporters, despite Saturday’s disappointing turnout at the Aviva Stadium.

The former international is the latest IRFU employee to admit that the union got their ticketing strategy wrong in the build up to the Guinness Series, but he believes the bond between fans and players can be recreated.

“There is a strong bond between supporters and this particular team,” he said.

“There has been changes in the team but the core have been there over the past five or six years.

“That team has gone through Triple Crowns and has gone through difficult times and it’s gone through a Grand Slam so I think the bond is definitely still there. I’m not immune to all this. I’m a member of a rugby club myself and I talk to people every day about it. The bond is still there. We were all very disappointed at that situation at the weekend where there were 35,000 people, there.

“The IRFU have obviously put up their hands in terms of the mess that was made.”

The big worry for the union is that the attendance will be lower for the less glamorous Samoans on Saturday, but with 35,000 tickets sold in bundles with the Springbok game, McNaughton is calling on the fans who have tickets to travel.

“In terms of this (Samoa) game, it is a very important game for us,” he said. “We need to get back on the winning trail. It was always an important game for us not just because we were beaten by South Africa and we want as many people as possible, as many Irish supporters at the game. I guess there’s 35,000 who have tickets so I would urge these people to go to the game. I’m not ashamed to say that I would ask those people to come to the match. If they have got tickets they might think the small game is the Samoa game. It’s not a small game for us. It is a bit surreal playing against the top team in front of 35,000 people.”

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne was unavailable for comment yesterday but a spokesman confirmed that, in addition to the tickets already sold, a certain allocation is now available for public sale even before the union will have to accept back thousands from the clubs over the next couple of days.

“This is an allocation offered to but not required by the Samoan Union,” said the spokesman.

Those tickets are now on sale on the IRFU website for €50.

Meanwhile, said the IRFU spokesman, combined ticket sales for the New Zealand/Argentina games are much stronger.