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Bryon Kelleher, right, of Toulouse passes the ball in front of Jerry Flannery of Munster during their Heineken Cup final match between Toulouse and Munster at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday, May 24, 2008. AP Photo/Remy Gabalda
The Heineken Cup, the Northern Hemisphere’s premier domestic tournament, is set to pass a remarkable milestone this season.
The all Ireland Heineken Cup clash between defending champions Munster and compatriots Leinster will likely sell out, pushing the attendance for the fourteenth tournament beyond the 1,000,000 mark for match day gate receipts.
It is likely that the clash between Paul O’Connell’s Munster and Brian O’Driscoll’s Leinster – the two men effectively going head to head for the upcoming Lions captaincy – will set a new Irish domestic record with the match officially sold out at Croke Park.
The home of Gallic football has a capacity of 82,500.
The quarter finals last weekend officially attracted 101,466 people.
When the Cardiff Blues downed three time champions Toulouse, there were 36,728 fans on hand. This set a new Welsh domestic record, and pushed the season total to 981,946, well beyond the current record season total, set in 2005/06 with 964,853 attending the 79 matches.
So, notwithstanding the final at Murrayfield, which has a capacity of just shy of 68,000, this will set the season average for matches at approximately 12,820, an astonishing achievement.
With the unique qualification system of the Heineken Cup, and its junior tournament the European Challenge Cup, it shows a sound format that may be emulated by the future Southern Hemisphere Super tournaments, with views to employ the conference style systems that have large success in the north.
Effectively, the participation of these showpiece European championships is decided by the previous season’s standings of each countries respective domestic competition.
Under the Heineken Cup system, the top six countries of England and France qualify (based on Guinness Premiership and Top 14 standings). Ireland and Wales supply three teams, and Scotland two teams (based on Magner’s League standings), and finally Italy, with two teams from their Super 10 championship.
The final two places are decided by a play off between the best placed non qualifiers from the Magners League and Super 10; and the other by the highest ranked team from England, France or Italy that is the last remaining non winning side.
So next year, this team will be the Leicester Tigers, since there are no French or Italian teams left in the championship.
Any team that does not qualify for the Heineken Cup effectively gets to compete for the European Challenge Cup.
The Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup champions; automatically qualify for the following year’s Heineken Cup, which then counts towards that countries respective number of qualifiers.
The match officials for the semi-finals of the two championships have been allocated, with senior Welsh referee Nigel Owens taking charge of the all Irish derby, and Irishmen Alain Rolland controlling the second clash between the Cardiff Blues and Leicester Tigers.
There will be plenty of former New Zealand based players in action in the Heineken Cup semi finals, starting on the 1st of May.
For Cardiff, former Hurricane Paul Tito will continue to lead his team, supported by former All Black number eight Xavier Rush, as well Matamata born Jason Spice and former Highlander, Ben Blair.
For Leicester, former Crusader and All Black Scott Hamilton has scored three tries in his five appearances for the English team.
All Black record try scorer Doug Howlett and former Manawatu centre Lifeimi Mafi are key members of a Munster team dominated by Grand Slamming Irish, and even Leinster depend on Isa Nacewa, who was a core member of the Auckland and Blues teams.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.