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Ticket prices at dear old Twickenham are often criticised. You can now pay upwards of £70 to watch England play and the bad news is, considering their recent form, that most of the seats face the pitch. However, at least ticket prices vary on the status and position of the seat and, while it may be against my egalitarian background, at least part of me believes that the prices are relatively reasonable.

Last night at Newlands, given the shocking weather, the crowd of around 32,000 was also reasonably good. But when talking to the travelling Lions followers here, you get an insight into why there are large and rather worrying open spaces in the stadiums for the Lions matches, and why the South African Rugby Union has resorted to taking four-page advertisements in the papers in an attempt to sell-out even the Test matches. Ticket prices come in at around £95 and amazingly they cost the same no matter what part of the stadium you are in.

It was particularly ridiculous and upsetting to see large areas of the stadium empty in what would be deemed the prime seats in and around the halfway lines and to see the massed ranks of Lions supporters shoved out of the way in the corners and high up behind the posts. This sort of thing recalls the actions of the Australian authorities in 2001. There, freaked by the brilliant support of the Lions, they resorted to closing turnstiles through which Lions fans had to pass, in order to stop the build up of atmosphere amongst those dedicated to the touring team.

But in this country, and especially where the drive to help the disadvantaged is always key, to charge far more for a midweek game than Twickenham charges for a prime international match, is absolutely crazy.

Travel agents also tell me that when they did their sums before the onset of the recession, the South African authorities thought that they would coin it from travelling Lions supporters, rather arrogantly counted the money and dished out the dodgy seats only to find that their advanced projections were wrong.

This, and the fact that crowds in general have been poor, casts a pall over aspirations of South Africa to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Nearly £100 a throw is too much. In fact, it is profiteering.

Robben Island return?

The boats are still in harbour, the waves are still thrashing and thousands of Lions followers here in Cape Town are still waiting for their trip to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. As I said a few days ago, this is the classic and totally unmissable tourist trip to be done anywhere in South Africa, it is a brilliant and humbling experience.

Yesterday, the boats were all revving up because the Cape Town weather, stormy all week, had alleviated in the morning. However, at the very last minute when some of the boats were being boarded, some bright spark took a look at the weather charts.

They found that there were storms on the way. Later, as one of the tourist chiefs told me, massive seas rose between the Cape Town harbour and the Island. The section of ocean would have been totally impassable from early afternoon for the rest of the day, and had the happy tourists made their way to the island, then they would have at least gained a flavour of the Mandela experience by having to sleep the night packed into the cells. That is taking authenticity to new levels.