Hundreds of Kiwi rugby fans were fuming after being turned away from the All Blacks test against Ireland in Dublin yesterday.
A fire meant Lansdowne Road’s northern terraces had to be closed. The bulk of the 7500 ticket holders were Irish. But hundreds of Kiwis - most London based - were caught up in the controversy.
Fiona Speers from Napier said she was gutted when she heard the news the night before the test, but still came to the ground, as did hundreds of others, in case Irish Rugby Union officials had a late change of heart.
“Gutted isn’t strong enough word to describe how I feel,” she said. “You couldn’t print in the paper how I really feel about this situation. I know there’s not much that can be done but that’s does not make this any easier.”
Fans were refunded the face value of their ticket. For Mike Baumgart of Otaki this was of little consolation.
He bought his $60 ticket on Ebay for $300. “So this is going to be one hell of an expensive weekend,” he said.
“We have flown in from London just for this.”

Posted: 11|14|05 at 9:40 am. Filed under: Auction News.