The Herald reports

Warriors to demand compensation for late call-off at Leinster

Kevin Ferrie and Alasdair Reid

Published on 8 Jan 2010
Glasgow Warriors will demand compensation from the Celtic Rugby Board following the late decision to cancel last night’s meeting with Leinster after the Magners League leaders had made the trip across the Irish Sea.

A claim for around £10,000 is expected to be made to cover the team’s costs, but it is impossible to calculate how much the club’s growing band of travelling supporters will be out of pocket.

Leinster’s announcement that tickets for the match will be valid for the rearranged fixture will offer them little consolation.

A Glasgow Warriors spokesman said yesterday that they had been “disappointed and frustrated” by the decision.

“We will now be discussing the late cancellation of the fixture with Magners League organisers, Celtic Rugby, as a priority,” he continued.

The frustration was evident from the comments of Sean Lineen, the Warriors coach, who claimed that Leinster
officials had not done enough to make sure the table-topping clash could go ahead as scheduled due to a frozen pitch yesterday morning.

Lineen said he agreed with the decision to call the game off, but added that Leinster had underestimated the severity of the conditions and could have done more to protect the surface.

“There was no way the game was ever going to go on,” said the coach. “We had a good look at the pitch and it was rock hard. I think Leinster didn’t realise how bad it would be. They’remaybe not as used to weather like this as we are.

“They didn’t pull out all the stops to get the game on. I don’t know exactly what they were doing, but it wasn’t enough. They should have had hot-air blowers and thicker covers than the ones they used. Our guys desperately wanted to play and they are really disappointed by this.”

Both teams had selected virtually full-strength sides for the game and they will now struggle to come up with a new date when that will be possible again.

Leinster are facing a fixture congestion nightmare following the cancellation of their Magners League

A spokesman for Leinster denied Lineen’s claim that more could have been done to ensure the game went ahead or that Glasgow had been misled into making a fruitless journey.

“We were doing everything possible all week,” he said. “The pitch was playable on Thursday and we advised Glasgow of that. However, we then suffered a very cold snap on Thursday night – minus 5 –
that hadn’t been foreseen. We understand their frustration, but we didn’t blindfold them to make the journey. 
We wanted to play too.”

This article was originally posted on 9-Jan-2010, 09:00 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Jan-2010, 09:01.