KEY POINTS:
Demand for the last tickets for the final and semifinal stages of the Rugby World Cup has created internet chaos.
Within minutes of going on sale late on Wednesday night online outlets were bombarded by more than two million hits as fans sought to snatch the remaining 15,000 tickets.
Access to the four official RWC outlets remained slow or unavailable more than 12 hours later. The lucky few who gained tickets were limited to two per address, and with no guarantee that the seats would be together.
Organisers say they have already surpassed their goal of selling 85 per cent of the 2.4 million tickets up for grabs. Some seats are still available for matches in the pool stages, notably in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The few remaining pool and quarter-final seats go on sale today.
"There are still a few possibilities for a ticket, even for matches with France, but you have to grab the opportunity as quickly as you can," said Bernard Lapasset, president of the World Cup organising committee.
Rugby fans, though, have been wincing at prices, which range from €215 ($414) to €498 for the final stages.
More than 75 per cent of the ticket purchases overall have been to French supporters, but in some venues foreigners are in the majority.
"More than 50 per cent of our spectators will be Anglo-Saxons, not to mention the Welsh, who are great rugby players," said Frederic Jouet, manager of matches in the western city of Nantes. "With the Welsh in the stadium, with a full stadium, it's going to be fantastic."
The surge in public interest coincides with a mammoth publicity campaign in France, where soccer is enshrined as the national sport.
French rugby fans are hoping that the venue for the last-round matches, the Stade de France, in Paris, will be a good omen.
In 1998, France won soccer's World Cup at the UFO-shaped stadium and followed it up two years later with victory there in the European national championships.
