A ticketing glitch denied plenty of punters the chance to buy tickets for next year's rugby sevens tournament in Wellington.
Tickets went on sale around 9am this morning and Sevens Wellington said in a statement that more than 6000 were snapped up in about three minutes before the system crashed.
Uncertainty around what caused the problem has forced organisers to take the remaining tickets offline while the system is fixed.
Sevens Wellington general manager Steve Walters said organisers could see there had been a high demand for tickets before the problem occurred.
"We apologise to the fans for any inconvenience this has caused and I assure you we're doing all we can to get it back up and running,'' the statement read.
Mr Walters said there were still 12,000 tickets remaining and the public would be advised via Sevens Wellington's official Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as its website when they would be back on sale. Ticketek will also be keeping the fans updated.
Ticketek and organisers are working together with the hope of having tickets back on sale this afternoon.
