HEINEKEN CUP 2008 FINAL – MUNSTER v TOULOUSE
Millennium Stadium: Saturday May 24th – kick-off: 5.00pm
DID YOU KNOW?
– Toulouse won the toss for jersey choice and will wear an all red strip. Munster will wear their blue second strip with white shorts.
– This will be the third Heineken Cup final to be played ‘indoors’. The Millennium Stadium’s retractable roof, which weighs 8,000 tonnes, will be closed for the 2008 final, just as it was in 2002 and 2006.
– Munster won the toss for dressing room choice and will use the same ‘North’ dressing room as in their victorious 2006 Millennium Stadium final.
– When Munster won in 2006 the ‘North’ dressing room was the ‘Home’ dressing room for the Wales rugby team. Wales switched in February and won their Grand Slam out of the dressing room in which Toulouse will change.
– Big screens in Limerick (O’Connell Street) and in Toulouse (Place du Capitol) will enable supporters in both cities to watch live coverage of the Cardiff 2008 Final.
– There are 20 bars at the Stadium which at the 2006 Heineken Cup Final sold 65,000 pints of Heineken.
– In 2006, more than 6,500 pies and pasties were sold from the vending outlets at the Heineken Cup final.
– The official capacity at the Millennium Stadium is currently 74,618.
– When Wales beat France to secure the Grand Slam this year the gate of 74,609 beat by nine the former Millennium Stadium attendance record set in the 2002 Heineken Cup Final between Leicester Tigers and Munster of 74,600.
– This will be the fifth Heineken Cup final played in Cardiff – but only the third at the Millennium Stadium as the 1996 and 1997 finals were played at the old Cardiff Arms Park.
– Munster have appeared in all three Heineken Cup finals hosted at the Millennium Stadium
– There have been 11 tries scored in the four Heineken Cup finals played in Cardiff to date – all by backs. Overall, the 12 finals have produced 21 tries – an average of 1.75 – with two players scoring braces. They were Sebastien Carrat (Brive, 1997) and Leon Lloyd (Leicester, 2001).
– Munster will become the third team to play in four Heineken Cup finals, joining Toulouse (fifth final) and Leicester Tigers (four finals).
– Heineken Cup finals have been staged in five countries – England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
– A total of 644,598 fans have gone through the turnstiles for the 12 Heineken Cup finals – an average of 53,717 per match.
– The 2007 final between London Wasps and Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium was watched by a world record crowd for a club rugby match of 81,076.
– The first four Heineken Cup winning captains were backs – Emile Ntamack (Toulouse – 1996), Alain Penaud (Brive – 1997), Andy Nicol (Bath – 1998) and David Humphreys (Ulster – 1999). But since 1999, every team that has won the Heineken Cup has been captained by a forward – Pat Lam (Northampton Saints – 2000), Martin Johnson (Leicester Tigers – 2001, 2002), Fabien Pelous (Toulouse – 2003, 2005), Lawrence Dallaglio (London Wasps – 2004, 2007) and Anthony Foley (Munster – 2006).
– There are 223 players from the 12 match day 22-man squads who own Heineken Cup final winners’ medals – 42 have two medals and Cedric Heymans is out on his own with three (with Brive in 1997 and Toulouse in 2003 and 2005). Among the 42 double winners are current Toulouse squad members Fabien Pelous, Jean Bouilhou, Cedric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion, Finau Maka, Jean-Baptiste Poux and William Servat.
– The most points scored in a Heineken Cup final are the 64 rattled up at Parc des Princes in 2001. The 34 scored that day by Leicester Tigers is the most scored by a team in a final and the 30 scored by Stade Francais Paris is the most scored by a losing team.
– Players from 14 different nationalities are on the winners’ roll of honour, headed by 72 Englishmen and 65 Frenchmen. There are also players from Ireland (45), Scotland (10), Wales (eight), South Africa and New Zealand (five each), Samoa (four), Argentina (three), Australia (two) and one from each of Italy, USA, Canada and Poland.
– The most tries scored in a final are the four by Brive when they beat Leicester Tigers 28-9 in Cardiff in 1997. The 19 points winning margin is the biggest in the 12 finals.
– The most points scored by an individual in a final is the 30 kicked by Stade Francais Paris’ Diego Dominguez (nine penalty goals and a drop goal) in the 2001 defeat by Leicester.
