Benetton Treviso will join the cream of European clubs when they play their 50th Heineken Cup match in the Round 2 Pool 1 clash with Castres Olympique at Stade Pierre Antoine on Friday night...
Treviso, the flag bearers of Italian rugby and among the 12 pioneering Heineken Cup clubs back in 1995, are in the tournament for a 10th season and will become the 11th club to receive an ERC Elite Team Award.
"Reaching 50 Heineken Cup matches is something the club can feel pretty proud about - it means that over the last decade the club has been successful in Italy while holding their heads high in Europe," said Benetton Treviso coach and former All Black ace Craig Green.
"The only shame is that, so far, we have not been able to go that one step further and qualify for the quarter-finals.
"We did reasonably well against Perpignan last weekend on a wet day when both sides had difficulty holding onto the ball and the big difference is that we are just lacking that experience of playing regularly at this level.
"The players are giving 100 per cent but they are not used to the greater intensity and higher quality of opposition. We played Castres in the European Challenge Cup four years ago and beat them over there and here in Treviso so we know a bit about them and their ground.
"That said, they will be keen to build on their solid performance against Wasps. Castres proved they are a strong defensive side with a powerful scrum and they don't miss many tackles so in many respects we expect them to be fairly similar to Perpignan and another big challenge for us."
While Treviso will reach that collective 50-match landmark, three more players could individually reach a half century of tournament matches.
The trio on 49 appearances are Stade Français Paris captain David Auradou - who has so far missed just five of the club's tournament matches - Leinster's Girvan Dempsey and John Davies (Llanelli Scarlets).
Five of the Round 1 matches pulled in five-figure crowds with the Leinster and Gloucester Rugby thriller at Lansdowne Road topping the lot with 22,530 fans.
Leicester Tigers regularly attract a full house and there was not a spare seat at Welford Road for the visit of reigning Heineken Cup champions Munster with the Ospreys, Ulster Rugby and Biarritz Olympique also watched by crowds of over 10,000 on a weekend when the tournament attracted a bumper 112,749 fans through the turnstiles.
