Fans warned as tickets for Grand Slam tilt offered online for €5,000

ENGLISH rugby bosses have issued a warning over the resale of tickets for Ireland’s Grand Slam clash with England as the precious passes are being flogged for up to €5,000 online.

Unscrupulous sellers are taking advantage of those desperate to witness sporting history at Twickenham this weekend, with many tickets being offered on resale sites for well over their original value.

Viagogo.ie had 139 tickets for sale yesterday evening, ranging from €916 to a staggering €4,949.

UK-based Stubhub also had a number of Ireland v England tickets left for sale, with the most expensive being £3,750 (€4,226) per ticket for a seat on the lower west section of the stadium.

The cheapest ticket on the website last night was for £599 (€675) for an upper east seat. Getmein.com also had 12 tickets up for grabs, ranging from £715 (€805) to £990 (€1,115).

Other touts were turning to websites such as eBay and Gumtree to sell the high-indemand tickets.

The average price of a single ticket was more than £1,000 (€1,126) on Gumtree, while the most expensive was advertised at £2,000 (€2,253) for a seat on the upper tier.

England’s RFU urged people not to purchase tickets being offered for far more than their face value.

“If you buy tickets or hospitality from a party who is not authorised by the RFU to sell them, you risk being denied entry with an invalid tickets or not receiving a ticket/hospitality at all,” read a statement on the union’s website.

“The RFU takes the issue of black-market tickets very seriously and is doing everything in its power to curtail the activities of unofficial sales through street touting, unauthorised ticket agencies/ corporate hospitality providers, as well as internet sites such as Viagogo, eBay, Seatwave and Get Me In. “Selling tickets through secondary sites at inflated prices is against the RFU terms and conditions.” The IRFU also has strict rules on the resale of tickets.

A spokesperson for Viagogo told the Irish Independent: “Viagogo is a marketplace and doesn’t buy or sell tickets. Viagogo provides a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers.

“Viagogo does not set ticket prices, sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value. Where demand is high and tickets are limited, prices increase.”