Financially-hit Irish sporting bodies are facing further hardship following the announcement of Christmas Covid restrictions.
Concerned with the transmissible figures for the new Omicron variant of Covid-19, the Government has agreed that outdoor sporting events are to be limited to 50% capacity, with a cap of 5,000 spectators.
Indoor sporting events will be limited to a maximum of 50% of venue capacity, or 1,000 spectators - whichever is lower. The Government has decided that no indoor events will be allowed after 8pm.
The new regulations will kick in from midnight on Sunday, so in the short term Munster's Champions Cup clash with Castres at Thomond Park on Saturday night is not affected by the changes.
However the festive United Rugby Championship interpros will be hit, including Munster's home tie with Leinster on St Stephen's Day and Connacht's home tie with Munster on New Year's Day, while Leinster are scheduled to play the Lions at the RDS on January 7 and also at home to Montpellier nine days later.
The restrictions are to set to continue to the end of next month but will be reviewed on January 11.
On the plus side for the IRFU, Ireland's home Six Nations clash with Wales takes place in the first week in February and Irish rugby bosses will hope that the Aviva Stadium can be filled for the occasion.
But like Leinster, Munster will be hit particularly hard if the new rules remain in place for the entirety, with money-spinning home ties against Wasps - in the Champions Cup - and Ulster in the URC also subject to the 5,000 spectator limit as things stand.
There are also Christmas race meetings taking place at Leopardstown and Limerick that will be affected - the latter has accommodated up to 17,000 paying punters per day in the past, so the limit on capacity is a serious blow.
In a statement tonight, Munster Rugby said: "Under the government measures the number of spectators attending sporting events are to be limited to 50% capacity, to a maximum of 5,000 people.
"The measures stay in place until 30 January, but this date will be kept under review.
"The new measures do not come into effect until Sunday, 19 December and there is no change for supporters attending tomorrow's game against Castres Olympique at Thomond Park.
"While facilitating season ticket holders and 10-year-ticket holders as a priority, tickets sold on general sale for the upcoming games against Leinster, Ulster and Wasps will be declared void with refunds issued to patrons.
"With a reduced capacity of 5,000, the ticket office will make direct contact with season ticket holders and 10-year-ticket holders with further details on ticket allocations in due course."
In terms of the reduction in numbers for the Munster v Leinster game, former Munster Rugby star Barry Murphy told RTÉ: "I don't know how they're going to manage that.
"Obviously it's one of the biggest sporting events of the rugby calendar, a packed Thomond Park over Christmas is always an incredible day out and we haven't seen live audiences there for it in two years.
"I don't know how they're meant to turn around to 20,000 people and say, 'you can't go', there are a lot of people who have planned their Christmas break around that.
"For it to happen a week out is really tough and Munster in particular will be very frustrated with that announcement."
Taoiseach Michéal Martin said: "We are still in the early days, we are going to see a massive rise in infections, far in excess of anything we have seen to date.
"The challenge we face is how to slow the rise of infections.
"We are in a much, much stronger place than we were but there is no silver bullet to fix it.
"The news this evening will be desperately disappointing to many...however the truth is that we are in a much better place than we were this time, we just need to get to the other side of this Omicron strain as quickly as possible."
