Fans fume as paid Cardiff tickets fail to arrive

Six hundred All Black supporters in Cardiff to see their team play Wales were left fuming when told 30 minutes before kick-off that their paid tickets would not be arriving.

While 500 New Zealand supporters were among the 74,402-strong crowd at Millennium Stadium, a larger group were angry and tearful less than a mile away at Sophia Gardens.

Each had paid £119 ($305) to London company Wanderer's World for bus travel to Cardiff, hospitality and a match ticket.

They were initially told their tickets would arrive when they boarded at London, and on the bus they were reassured that tickets would be waiting when they arrived in Cardiff.

But when they got there they were ushered into a marquee with a television and told by a company representative they would not be getting into the stadium.

The company could not be reached for comment last night.

June Bartlett's daughter, Abby Clayton, rang her in tears from Cardiff at 5am yesterday.

"When I got up to watch the game, there were a couple of texts from her saying, 'We still haven't got our tickets, I'm getting worried'.

"The next thing, there was this frantic phone call. She was sobbing her heart out and saying 'There are no tickets - you're not going to believe this. We can't go and they have no tickets'."

Her daughter told her the rep had apologised but gave no excuse. At that point, people started getting angry, said Ms Bartlett. "She said someone threw a bottle at this guy and called him a name. A security guard came in and took him away and that was the last they saw of him."

The game would have been one of the highlights of her daughter's OE, said Ms Bartlett. Her daughter, a medical lab scientist, had secured work at a Portsmouth hospital, and had set off overseas once she'd paid off her student loan.

Another supporter emailed the Herald saying that over two hours they were told four different stories.

"Let's hope the last comment from [Wanderer's World] won't turn out to be the fifth lie - that we will get a full refund."

But they found a pub, managing to see the haka on TV with two minutes to spare. They had a "reasonably good time", but were surprised to see their tour leaders having their own party, "drinking and dancing at the front of the bus as we were all still drowning our sorrows".

Millennium Stadium chief executive Paul Sergeant said police were called but with the match sold out, none of the supporters could get in.