Record Crowds All The Way

Advance sales for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals on 11-13 April have reached record levels with only around 20 percent of the 112,115 tickets remaining

The 'Sold Out' signs have been up for weeks at Welford Road, where reigning champions Leicester Tigers meet Munster in a repeat of last year's Heineken Cup final.

And Stradey Park will be filled to its 10,800 capacity for the first time this season to witness Llanelli's clash with Perpignan - 800 more than saw the last quarter-final clash between these two sides in the 1998/99 tournament in France.

Toulouse are building towards another full house of 36,500 at Stadium de Toulouse for their home tie with Northampton Saints. They have sold 20,000 tickets to date and the Saints are expecting more than 2,000 fans to follow them.

It was at the same stadium in the 1999/2000 season that Toulouse and Montferrand set a Heineken Cup quarter-final record of 37,000, but that mark has already been surpassed following some amazing sales for the game between unbeaten Leinster Lions and the French champions Biarritz Olympique.

the Irish province has sold a new tournament record 41,000 tickets for the game at Lansdowne Road and are confident of shifting even more before kick-off comes around at 15.35pm on Saturday, 12 April.

To date, 88,615 tickets have been sold for the four quarter-finals, eclipsing the previous tournament record of 71,085 set in the 1999/2000 campaign.

That represents a near 25% increase on the previous record and a massive 50% climb on the figures of the previous two seasons as the excitement of Europe's pre-eminent club competition continues to fire the imagination.

Already this season the attendances at the 72 Pool matches have reached an all-time high with 493,865 fans clamoring to get in. Along the way, there were 200% increases in crowds in Italy, advances in England and Ireland and a record Pool attendance on UK soil of 16,845 at Welford Road when Leicester Tigers met Neath in the sixth round.