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* Ulster Rugby, the 1999 champions, will be bidding to become the sixth club to win two or more titles.
* Brad Thorn, the Leinster Rugby lock and 2011 World Cup winner with New Zealand, could become the oldest player to appear in a Heineken Cup final. Born on 3 February, 1975, he will be 37 years three months and 16 days old on the day of the 17th final. The oldest player to appear in a final is Perpignan's replacement hooker Marc dal Maso who was 36 years three months and 10 days old when they lost the 2003 final to Toulouse.
* The oldest Heineken Cup winner is Leicester Tigers prop Darren Garforth who was 36 years one month and 19 days old when the Tigers won the 2002 final.
* It will be the fifth one-nation final - but the first all-Irish final. There have been three all-French finals and one all-English final.
* The all-Irish final means an Irish club will have won the Heineken Cup five times in the last seven years and also that Ireland will have an additional place in the 2012/13 tournament with Connacht Rugby joining Leinster Rugby, Munster Rugby and Ulster Rugby.
* It will be the first tournament meeting between the sides and that will come in what will be tournament Match No 1,214.
* Leinster were the ninth club to lift the trophy with their 2009 triumph following Toulouse (4), Leicester Tigers, Munster and London Wasps (2 each), Brive, Bath Rugby, Ulster Rugby and Northampton Saints.
* Austin Healey is the only player to have won two Heineken Cup final man-of-the-match awards, doing it in the Tigers' back-to-back triumphs in 2001 and 2002.
* There are 274 players from the 16 match day 22/23-man squads who own Heineken Cup final winners' medals - six have three medals and Cedric Heymans is out on his own with four (with Brive in 1997 and Toulouse in 2003, 2005 and 2010). The triple winners are Toulouse players Clement Poitrenaud, Vincent Clerc, Yannick Jauzion, Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat and Jean Bouilhou.
* 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-point winning margin is the biggest in the 15 finals.
* Only four of the 74 double winners have collected medals with different clubs. As well as Heymans, Philippe Carbonneau did it with Toulouse (1996) and Brive (1997), Federico Mendez with Bath Rugby (1998) and Northampton Saints (2000) and Eoin Reddan with London Wasps (2007) and Leinster Rugby last season.
* Players from 17 different nationalities are on the winners' roll of honour, headed by 73 Irishmen, 72 Englishmen and 71 Frenchmen. There are also players from Scotland (11), New Zealand (10), Wales and South Africa (8 each), Samoa, Argentina and Australia (5 each), and one from each of Italy, USA, Canada, Poland, Fiji, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
* The all-Ireland semi-final between Munster and Leinster at Croke Park in 2009 was watched by a then world record crowd for a club rugby match of 82,208.
* The most points scored by an individual in a final is the 30 kicked by Stade Français Paris' Diego Dominguez (nine penalty goals and a drop goal) in the 2001 defeat by Leicester. 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.
* Only two of the 16 finals have failed to produce a try - when Ulster Rugby beat Colomiers 21-6 in 1999 and when Toulouse needed extra time in the 2005 final to beat Stade Francais Paris 18-12.
* Raphael Ibanez, the former London Wasps hooker and Heineken Cup 2012 ambassador, was the only front five forward to score a try in a Heineken Cup final - until the 2011 showpiece match at the Millennium Stadium. Then he was joined by Northampton Saints hooker Dylan Hartley and Leinster lock Nathan Hines. Only nine forwards have scored Heineken Cup final tries - the others being flankers David Wallace (Munster, 2000), Neil Back (Leicester Tigers, 2001), Ben Woods (Leicester Tigers, 2009) and Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints, 2011) and No8s Denis Leamy (Munster, 2008) and Jamie Heaslip (Leinster, 2009).
* In 2009 Leinster became the 14th club to contest a Heineken Cup final. The other Heineken Cup finalists have been Toulouse (6), Leicester Tigers (5), Munster (4), London Wasps, Stade Francais Paris, Brive, Biarritz Olympique (2), Cardiff RFC, Bath Rugby, Ulster Rugby, Colomiers, Northampton Saints and Perpignan (1 each).
*The 16 finals have produced 32 tries - an average of two per match - with three players scoring braces. They are Sebastien Carrat (Brive, 1997), Leon Lloyd (Leicester Tigers, 2001) and Jonny Sexton for Leinster Rugby 12 months ago.
* Two of the finals have required extra time to determine the winner and Toulouse won on both occasions, against Cardiff in 1996 and Stade Français Paris in 2005.
