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Leinster's Reggie Corrigan is two games away from reaching the magical 50 mark in Europe's finest club rugby competition, while Toulouse's three-times champion Trevor Brennan is three matches away from joining the elite list.
Only 16 players in the opening 10 seasons of the Heineken Cup have played 50 or more matches and the three Irish teams have already provided nine of them.
Munster skipper Anthony Foley leads the way with 67 appearances in his side's 68 Heineken Cup encounters.
Clubmates John Hayes, John Kelly, Peter Stringer, Ronan O'Gara and Anthony Horgan have all earned their ERC Elite caps, while the Leinster duo of Victor Costello and Shane Byrne, now with Saracens, and Ulster's Gary Longwell are also members of the '50 Cap' club.
As well as Corrigan and Brennan, Ulster's David Humphreys, Leinster's Eric Miller and Munster's Mike Mullins are only four appearances away from their half centuries. Munster's Alan Quinlan is five away and Leinster's Shane Horgan six.
Munster, Leinster and Ulster, the only Irish winners of the tournament, are three of only four teams who have competed in each of the 10 seasons of Heineken Cup rugby.
Toulouse have played 72 games in the tournament, reaching four finals, with Munster next on the list with 68. Leinster are fifth with 59 appearances and Ulster sixth with 57. Stade Francais Paris and Edinburgh Gunners will play their 50th games in the tournament in round three of the Pool matches.
While the Munster legend Foley leads the way in individual appearances with 67, nine ahead of Llanellli Scarlets lock Chris Wyatt and Toulouse skipper Fabien Pelous, team mate O'Gara is the tournament's leading points scorer.
Gara overtook Diego Dominguez last season at the top of the Heineken Cup points chart and is one short of reaching 650. Dominguez scored 645 points for Milan and Stade Francais Paris.
Only four players - O'Gara, Dominguez, ASM Clermont Auvergne's Stephen Jones and Neil Jenkins - have qualified for an ERC Elite Award for breaking through the 500 points barrier, while nobody has yet reached the 25 try target set for the other individual award. Ulster outside half Humphreys is 36 points short of joining the 'ERC 500 Club'.
On the tournament front, ERC are looking forward to topping 4 million fans at the Pool stages in Round 1 of this season's competition, while the 6 millionth fan in ERC's history will come through the gates in the later Pool matches.
