Rugby World Cup in chaos with fans facing beer and water shortages out in France
The Rugby World Cup second round matches are due to commence on Sunday night
PA
Fans at the Rugby World Cup are facing beer shortages out in France.
The country has seen boiling temperatures of up to 37C and, in some areas of the country, supporters are struggling to get their hands on water as well.
That's been a particularly big issue in Bordeaux, where both Wales and Ireland played their first matches.
Wales got their tournament off to a positive start by narrowly beating Fiji 32-26 on Sunday.
Fans at the Rugby World Cup are facing beer and water shortages out in France
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And Ireland enjoyed a positive opening match of their own by hammering Romania 82-8 24 hours before.
According to The Times, one Welsh supporter attended both matches.
But he missed the first half of the Ireland game because he spent ages waiting for water.
Tournament organisers have vowed to address the situation and have blamed the shortages on the heatwave the country is currently enduring.
"The fans' experience is at the heart of our concerns and we understand the disappointment of fans after the first weekend," Julien Collette, France 2023 CEO, said on Wednesday morning.
"We have had a heatwave in September, which has never happened before, which had two major consequences.
"The fans drank a lot more - we thought we had sufficient supplies based on previous records, but those records were broken.
"For example, the previous record was 50,000 cups, and there we sold 90,000, well over any previous records.
"The second consequence is that the barrels have been difficult to keep refrigerated.
"It was not so much the supplies but how cold the barrels were, which is why there were queues.
"We are working hard with our teams to improve the efficiency of the refrigeration and service.
"The consumption of water also broke records too."
Tournament director Michael Poussau added: "We know there was no beer shortage, there was no lack of beer.
"It was a series of unfortunate difficulties.
"We are going to be working with France 2023, the venues and our partner Asahi - who have done an amazing job helping us address these challenges - to improve the situation."
Jacques Rivoal, France 2023 Chairman, is happy with the way the tournament has gone so far - while also hailing the attendances at matches.
"The first eight matches saw 430,000 people inside the stadiums and 276,000 attend the rugby villages [fan zones]," Rivoal said.
"And we had some magnificent moments of popular jubilation.
"Around 140,000 gathered in the rugby villages for the opening match, with 15 millions viewers on TF1.
"One in five French people watched the match. That underlines the public engagement with the event.
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"For Japan v Chile in Toulouse, there were more than 30,000 spectators.
"For Italy v Namibia in Saint-Etienne, more than 35,000.
"For South Africa v Scotland in Marseille, more than 63,000."
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