DAVID SOLE

There have been two pieces of good news for rugby fans in the past few days.

Firstly, it was announced that around 16,500 fans will be allowed into Murrayfield to watch the British & Irish Lions take on Japan in their warm-up match.

That was followed up by the news that the Six Nations were in discussions with the BBC and ITV to keep the broadcasting rights on terrestrial television.

Of course, Murrayfield has a much larger capacity than 16,500.

Around another 50,000 fans could get into the ground were it not for the pandemic.

But it will be a welcome start to a return to some sense of normality.

The other downside is that tickets for this match, one of the few times that the Lions have ever played a game at home, will be in great demand.

It looks like there will be some sort of ballot organised by the SRU to enable fans to access a ticket for the game.

If you are really desperate to see the match, you can go on to the secondary ticketing websites and buy tickets there.

Of course, the price of the tickets on the Viagogo site bear little resemblance to the face-value ticket price.

For the best seats, high in the West Stand, you will have to fork out a

‘ Administrators must tread with care when it comes to tickets and television

whopping £843 per seat, which seems somewhat excessive.

For a family of four, that is over £3,300.

Why there is a secondary market for a match like this is beyond me.

Surely the best thing to do would be to make those tickets available to genuine rugby fans – who couldn’t afford to travel on a tour to follow the Lions – so they could experience a Lions test on home soil. Something needs to change. Thankfully, common sense has prevailed elsewhere, and the Six Nations will be once again “free to air”.

The competition is such a great showcase for rugby on the global stage, it would have been a travesty had the rights been sold off to another broadcaster.

It is complex enough at the moment to follow rugby, with Sky, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and others all fighting hard to broadcast the sport.

And, once again, it is the rugby fan who is having to foot the different subscription bills to be able to watch a variety of matches.

It is a sign that the game continues to focus hard on the commercial side of things at the expense of its audience, which is a dangerous path to pursue.

I’m sure that after a year of lockdown, fans will be hungry to watch live sport again.

But a time may come when it becomes too high a price to pay.

The administrators of the game should tread with care.