Rugby World Cup defends slow ticket system as fans fume over Taylor Swift-style wait

Rugby World Cup organisers have defended their ticketing system from criticism – and urged fans to be patient – after frustrated customers faced difficulties or waited up to five hours in a bid to secure seats at rugby’s showpiece tournament in Australia next year.

The first batch of tickets for the 2027 Rugby World Cup were up for grabs from midday on Wednesday in a pre-sale phase, in which registered fans had the chance to secure a limited number of seats to all 52 games at the tournament.

The pre-sale ticket phase runs for two weeks – closing on March 4 – but early demand saw Taylor Swift-like scenes, with the Rugby World Cup ticketing website running extremely slowly under the large traffic, leaving fans stuck in limbo for hours in the waiting room.

Social media was duly flooded with angry ticket buyers getting increasingly frustrated in the queue and with seemingly little progress; particularly those in the northern hemisphere who’d stayed up in the wee hours of the morning to try and secure tickets.

Some reported then being blocked from buying tickets due to having “restricted access”, which was related to settings on their phone or computer, or even dropping out after getting past the waiting room.

The long waiting times appeared to be related to slow turnover, given people had 30 minutes to buy tickets; far more than most events.

After four hours of the pre-sale, only category A and category B tickets for the final at ANZ Stadium were still available, priced at $1950 and $1550 respectively. The allocation of category C and D tickets – with the latter still priced at over $600 per seat – were exhausted.

“The system is performing as intended during the Presale,” the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 organisation said in a statement.

“It is designed to manage the high volumes of interest we typically see for Rugby World Cup, which can mean long wait times for some fans.

“Robust verification measures are in place to protect the integrity of the tournament and ensure tickets are secured by genuine fans. Maintaining secure access remains our priority.”

Rugby World Cup organisers also stressed there is more opportunity to buy tickets to the 2027 tournament coming in May for those who didn’t register in time for the pre-sale phase, or missed out on tickets they’d been seeking.

The pre-sale phase is only the second of three windows, and the next allocation of tickets will go on sale in the “Application” phase, which will be opened on a yet-to-be announced date in May.

The Application phase allows fans to apply for tickets to matches, and where demand exceeds availability, a ballot takes place.

Rugby World Cup organisers declined to specify what percentage of tickets will still be available in the Application phase. In total, there are over 2.5 million tickets for the 2027 Rugby World Cup – a tournament record given the teams have increased for the first time, from 20 to 24.