KEY POINTS:
PARIS - Glitches marred the launch of tickets sales for the 2007 rugby World Cup in France on Thursday.
The sales website (www.france2007.fr) was overwhelmed when 550,000 tickets for matches outside the semifinals and the final were made available this morning.
Fans trying to purchase tickets from counters of a bank sponsoring the event also had problems.
"The clerks did not seem too aware of the procedure," a fan, Frederique Vincent, who tried to purchase tickets from a counter of the bank in Paris, told Reuters.
"They gave us a form to fill in but the writing was so small we could hardly read the list of matches," added Vincent, 38.
She was then told that there was a problem with the computer system which would not be working for two hours.
- REUTERS
