Record Heineken Cup crowds

Week One of this season's Heineken Cup attracted a record 152,991 fans, as two grounds established attendance records for Pool matches.

Toulouse and Munster are weekend's biggest draws

Week One of this season's Heineken Cup attracted a record 152,991 fans, as two grounds established attendance records for Pool matches. The biggest crowd of the weekend was in Toulouse, where last season's finalists pipped Bath 18-16 in a thrilling Pool 5 clash. There were 31,885 fans crammed into the Le Stadium in Toulouse - almost 10,000 more than saw the two teams play at the same venue back in 2000. Munster's refurbished Thomond Park established a record European Pool gate for the Irish Province with 23,500 as they launched their defence of the title with a narrow win over Montauban in Pool 1, while in the other Pool 1 match ASM Clermont Auvergne's 15,681 gate against Sale Sharks was a club record for the tournament. 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 who watched 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. Meanwhile, this season's final will be played at Murrayfield on Saturday, 23 May 2009 with a 5pm kick-off. ERC, the tournament oganisers, announced that the second final to be staged in the Scottish capital will kick off in th eraly evening. It will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. Another 2,500 tickets have been sold since the main tournament launch ten days ago and total advance sales are now running at over 20,000 tickets. Heineken Cup Attendance Records Round by Round
Round 1: 152,991 - 2008/09
Round 2: 136,965 - 2006/07
Round 3: 134,634 - 2006/07
Round 4: 126,084 - 2007/08
Round 5: 128,020 - 2005/06
Round 6: 115,886 - 2007/08