The South Africa Rugby Union (SARU) has announced it is taking legal action against unauthorised travel agencies that have left numerous fans without tickets for Saturday's second Test against New Zealand in Cape Town.
The SARU's statement came just hours before the Springboks take on the All Blacks at DHL Stadium, in the second of a four-Test 'Greatest Rivalry' series. A significant number of supporters have claimed they were scammed out of tickets for Saturday's match.
SARU denies blame
The governing body said in a statement that these unauthorised agencies had falsely blamed the SARU for fans being left without tickets.
"SA Rugby is seeking legal redress against travel agencies who have claimed that failures on the part of SA Rugby were responsible for fans being left ticketless for today's Castle Double Malt Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Test at DHL Stadium," the statement said.
"In subsequent communication with disappointed clients, claims have been made that the issue lay at the door of SA Rugby. This is completely untrue.
"Agencies sold the promise of tickets they did not have – and could not secure – for the Test in breach of the events terms and conditions of sale, and without ever having been given access by SA Rugby or its ticketing agency.
"These companies acted illegally and recklessly in pursuit of their own commercial gain at the expense of their clients.
"SA Rugby has turned the matter over to its attorneys."
Sell-out expected
A sell-out crowd of 62,000 is expected at the Cape Town venue, as the Boks look to avenge last week's 33-16 defeat to New Zealand in Johannesburg.
The back-to-back world champions had been on a 12-match winning run prior to last week's defeat - their longest under Rassie Erasmus.
Their preparations took a hit earlier this week, when fly-half Handre Pollard was forced to pull out injured.
Assistant coach Mzwandile Stick revealed on Friday that Pollard had been emotional as his hopes of playing the All Blacks were ruined this week.
"I can't really go deep and say how long he's going to be out for, but it's a calf injury," said Stick. "The nice thing – and I know it's a sad situation – but for a leader like him to be honest about how he feels and lose his pride in a sense of saying, 'Listen, I'm not feeling well'.
"At that moment in the training sessions, I could see he was going through tears.
"It's a sad thing to lose a player that way; he's been in good shape, he has been working very hard even when he was not in the matchday 23, and he has been positive and trying to assist the guys. I feel for him, and hopefully he can recover quickly."
