Fans to be reimbursed for match tickets as refixture set for March 4

SUPPORTERS short-changed by last Saturday’s non-event in Paris will be reimbursed the price of their match ticket if they so choose but the Six Nations have confirmed there will be no contribution made to offset any travel or accommodation expenses.

And Irish fans were given the short end of the stick yet again with the news that tournament organisers have decided on a late Sunday afternoon kick-off for the rescheduled game which will take place on March 4.

That complicates still further the task of those fans intent on making the return trip to the Stade de France in three weekends’ time after the IFRU’s request to have the game staged 24 or so hours earlier on the Saturday was ignored.

“Obviously we are not sure how many will be able to afford to go over again but we had to see if we could give an option to those people,” said IRFU spokesman Karl Richardson. “A Sunday makes it a bit more difficult for people who want to use their tickets again, whether they are based in Ireland or Europe.”

The Six Nations will release details today as to how those with stubs can avail of the money-back scheme but, as with all aspects of this debacle, that sounds easier in theory than it may be in practise.

“There are a number of points of purchase,” said Richardson. “I understand there are nine that the FFR have told us about. Equally, the way we distribute tickets is through the provinces to clubs ... so there is a reasonably complicated trail.”

Six Nations chief executive John Feehan accepted the new date was a less than ideal one for Irish fans but pointed out that it was basically a case of aggravating the least amount of people possible at the second time of asking.

“We understand it does (put Irish supporters out), yes, but it is the case of there being 5,000-odd supporters who come from Ireland and about 75,000 from France so we have to look at what is best for rugby in the overall context.”

Return flights from Cork and Dublin to Paris on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday ranged last night from €226 to €273 per adult and with only one due back to the Irish capital after the game, most visitors would face at least one night in France.

Feehan would not comment when asked if the Six Nations would consider organising some sort of practical gesture, such as free transport to the stadium, to Irish fans.

He also rejected the suggestion that tournament organisers should look to ape the example of their ERC colleagues who run the Heineken Cup by stipulating that host unions should have a second stadium on standby for such eventualities.

“A Plan B for an international is slightly different, particularly when you are talking about thousands and thousands of people with hospitality. Which 10,000 fans do you say can’t go if you move it to another smaller stadium.

“The scale of this thing is so much bigger than the ERC. It’s nice to compare it to the ERC but it is just not the same and it is not fair in lots of ways. France could go to the south of course but one is an 80,000-seater and one (Maresille) a 60,000.”