Mandatory Covid passes required for 74,000 Wales fans at Rugby today

Covid passes will be required for all of the 74,000 fans as Wales hosts international rugby at a full stadium for the first time since the pandemic.

Each ticket holder will also have an arrival time at a specific gate to stagger entries for Wales v New Zealand at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said passes had been “well managed” at big football matches in Wales.

Mark Williams, the stadium manager said the first thing fans would see will be stewards checking Covid passes.

“With the turnstiles the important thing this time is we’ve got the digital ticketing system, which is a fairly new system we’ve put in place, so just to implore the fans to download your digital tickets and have them ready to go before you get to the turnstiles.”

“We’re going to try our best, we’ll have to see how the crowd builds, what we don’t want to do is cause a problem by trying to solves a problem, so it’ll be proportional based on the size of the crowd at the time, we’ll do our best to get as many done as we can.

“We’ve got different filters, the phased entry system should help avoid that anyway, but of course we’ve got the Covid pass we’ve got the search and turnstiles, so we can switch on and off to get the flow going quite nicely into the stadium.

“We’ve got 850 stewards tomorrow which is remarkable.”

He said fans were “always very, very respectful, but with the extra restrictions that are in place, just respect the staff that have got a job to do”.

“Before you set off, make sure you’ve got your Covid pass sorted out, or your lateral flow test text or email sorted out, and get your tickets downloaded on to your phone so you’re ready at the turnstiles to move straight into the stadium.

“The only other addition is, we’re going to ask people to wear masks from the time they step on to our footprint to the time they take their seats. When you take your seat you have the option to take your mask off or leave it on. And if you leave the stadium bowl to go back into the concourse, you’ll have to put your mask back on.”