The Magners League may only be in its early stages but the competition is already drawing in impressive crowds at Irish, Scottish and Welsh venues.

A league regular season record crowd of 27,252 packed into a buzzing Lansdowne Road on Friday night to watch Leinster overcome reigning European champions Munster 27-20 in a high octane six-try encounter.

The gate was almost double the attendance figure for the same fixture last season - played on New Year's Eve at the RDS - which in itself had created a league attendance record at the time.

Celtic Rugby Director David Jordan said: "The majority of Magners League fixtures so far this season have recorded an increase in their gates on a like-for-like basis. Whilst attendances all around have seen an overall improvement, the Welsh Regions have seen increases of nearly 8%, in Ireland the crowds have gone up by almost a third and Scottish teams have increased their gate numbers by close to 17%.

"These improvements come on the back of a 20% increase in attendance figures achieved last season.

"We know that in the Magners League we have some of the best players in Europe, and the fans are now turning out in ever increasing numbers to show their appreciation for the exciting rugby they can see week in, week out on the pitch."