News

Heineken Cup final time confirmed

October 16 2008

The 2009 Heineken Cup final will be on Saturday May 23 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, kicking off at 17.00 BST (16.00 GMT).

Advance ticket sales have now reached the 20,000 mark for the 55,000-capacity stadium, for the final of a tournament that broke records for the number of fans watching the first round of matches, helped by the 31,885 fans who decked out Toulouse's Stade Municipal for the Bath game.

The previous record for the opening round of the Heineken Cup was last season's 128,587, while the previous best attendance for any Pool round was the 136,965 for Round 2 in the 2006/07 campaign.

It was the 24th time in the tournament's history that a round of Pool matches had attracted more than 100,000 fans and was the 13th in a row.

The tight nature of the games was also reflected in the overall try count, which was down on last season's Round 1 tally of 58 and the 51 in 2006/07. There were only 43 tries scored in the opening 12 games of this season's campaign - the lowest total for seven years.