Fans face a long wait to travel to the game

There are currently no sailings from Pembroke Dock in west Wales.

But in Fishguard, a ferry carrying 1800 passengers has been loaded and is due to leave the port at around 2030GMT on Friday.

However, the next sailing from the port will not take place until Saturday afternoon - after the 0315GMT service was cancelled.

There have been better conditions in north Wales at Holyhead where both Irish Ferries and Stena Line experienced only short delays on its services.

The companies are confident they will be able to accommodate additional passengers and get them to Dublin in time for the big match.

Cancelled bookings

Hundreds of fans had been forced to travel to the north Wales port after being turned away from the ferry sailings in west Wales.

Ferry companies started cancelling bookings earlier in the week when Friday's gale force weather conditions began to be forecast.

But the fans were not the only ones to be affected by the weather.

The Welsh rugby squad were also caught up in the travel nightmare after the team's flight was delayed by two hours leaving Cardiff International Airport.

Their flight was placed in a queue of others waiting to leave because of landing difficulties earlier on in Dublin.

We'll carry on operating as long as the weather allows us to do so...We'll try to get all the rugby fans across

Stena Line's Eamonn Hewitt

There were around 5,000 fans waiting at the airport, but they were said to be in good spirits.

The storm force gales battering the nation have decimated ferry services which would have carried eager Welsh rugby fans to the Irish Republic.

However the ferry companies had pledged to provide additional services depending on the weather.

"We'll carry on operating as long as the weather allows us to do so," said Stena Line's spokesman Eamonn Hewitt.

"The weather is hard to read but it's less bad in the central corridor than it is in the southern corridor.

"We'll try to get all the rugby fans across."

People have been trying to keep their spirits up

Irish Ferries' sailings from south west Wales between Pembroke and Rosslare were cancelled for Friday and early Saturday, with the 1745GMT Saturday sailing in doubt.

The company's Ulysses superferry was still crossing between Holyhead and Dublin.

A spokesman said she should be able to take on board most passengers wanting to cross the Irish Sea.

But the three Dublin Swift fast ferry crossings from Holyhead on Friday had to be cancelled.

"We anticipate that we will get everybody over for the rugby. We are doing everything we can to accommodate people," a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, P&O Irish Sea cancelled its 0930GMT sailing from Mostyn on Saturday because it was unable to get its ferry out of Dublin.

But the ferry company said that there were spaces on its 0200GMT Saturday and Sunday sailings for cars, but not foot passengers.

Stena Line remained "seriously" concerned about the weather forecast for Saturday and said it had very few remaining tickets for its services.

The travel difficulties follow the frustrations of last year's postponement of the Wales-Ireland game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff due to the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Passengers can call the ferry companies for information on the following numbers:

Irish Ferries - 08705 17 17 17

Stena Line - 08705 755 755

P&O Irish Sea - 0870 24 24 777