SCOTTISH Rugby has been forced to postpone its public pre-sale of tickets for Scotland’s Six Nations home matches after a suspected “bot attack”.
A post to social media on Thursday announced the update following the early ticket sale for Supporters Club members, which is believed to have been targeted.
The news has led to disgruntled fans speculating on social media after many endured long queues online and struggled to book tickets.
Scottish Rugby has said it is working with ticketing platform Ticketmaster to identify any “suspicious activity”.
Fans were hoping to secure their seats in the stands at Murrayfield to watch Scotland face Italy, Ireland and Wales in next year’s tournament, which kicks off on 1 February.
However, a rescheduled date for the pre-sale has not yet been confirmed, with an update promised for next week.
Scottish Rugby’s statement on social media read: “Tomorrow’s scheduled public sale of Guinness Men’s Six Nations tickets (Friday, December 6) has been postponed as we believe this week’s Supporters Club pre-sales were targeted by a bot attack.
“Scottish Rugby is committed to ensuring Scotland match tickets are purchased by genuine fans, and we are working closely with Ticketmaster to review today’s sale and identify any suspicious activity.
“We will provide a further update next week with a revised schedule of sale dates for these games.”
The post has since received over 1,400 likes and more than 370 comments, mostly from hacked-off fans sharing their views.
One said: “Couldn’t get any, 43,000 deep in the queue just after 10am and that number didn’t change, queue was “paused” the whole time. Gave up after around 45 minutes.
“Hopefully get them on the next go once this is fixed.”
Another commented: “You need a new ticketing partner that takes security seriously. This morning was a farce.”
A third agreed: “The problem is Ticketmaster. Bin them. They don’t care enough about the event or the people attending.
“They would sell snow to the Eskimos if they could. More interested in the selling fee.”
Another wrote: “Plenty tickets on Viagogo and other sites, before Supporters Club members get a chance to buy, how is this allowed?”
A fifth added: “Fair play to you guys for addressing this and putting the real fans first. Too many organisations would happily just take the money.”
