TICKET fever hit Sixways this morning as frantic supporters tried to snap up the last seats for Worcester's titanic tussle with Rotherham on April 12.

More than 300 people queued up for the 538 extra tickets which were made available to the public today at 9am after Worcester got the go-ahead to erect a temporary stand for the fixture.

One eager fan turned up at 6am to buy his ticket and by 8am, queues stretched half way around the Sixways car park.

The match, featuring the two top sides in National One, will decide who wins promotion to the Zurich Premiership and the demand for tickets has been such that Worcester could have sold out twice according to officials.

The crowd of 5,742, including 1,150 Rotherham fans, will be a record for a Worcester match at Sixways. "The demand has been phenomenal," said operations director Mike Robins. "I've only seen something close to this when we played Newcastle in the cup a few years ago.

"The public's appetite for this game, though, is quite incredible. We've been inundated with phone calls and when I arrived at the club at 8am, the queue was already half way around the car park.

"We sold out at 9.45am today so that is that now. There are no more tickets available for the game.

"It doesn't surprise me because it will be a great occasion. It is fabulous for the club and I just hope the result goes our way a week on Saturday."

Meanwhile, director of rugby John Brain looks like having almost a fully fit squad to chose from for the fixture.

Werner Swanepoel and Christian Evans, who both had to be replaced on Saturday during Worcester's 55-36 win at Wakefield, will train this week.

Mark Gabey, who popped a rib cartilage last month, is also improving day by day and will be fit for the Rotherham clash.

Chris Garrard was rested for Wakefield after struggling with a groin problem but the winger is also expected to train while Neil Lyman's calf injury is responding to treatment.

"There is still a bit of time until the game, so people can still fall down the stairs!" said Brain. "But barring that the picture looks a lot better on the injury front than it did before we travelled to Millmoor in November.

"We have players such as Mark Gabey, Chris Garrard and Neil Lyman that we will be monitoring closely but we don't foresee that many problems."