The 2002 final will smash the record for a Heineken Cup final -the 68,441 who watched Northampton Saints beat Munster 9-8 at Twickenham two years ago - with a mass army of Munster supporters crossing the Irish Sea and all roads from the Midlands leading to the Millennium Stadium.

And while around 50,000 went through the turnstiles for the sell-out semi-finals, the magic of the tournament is brilliantly reflected in the armchair audience the games attracted across Europe. FR2 captured almost one quarter of all viewers in France during match time when, with two million viewers, it was the best watched of any channels. And better than one in every three televisions switched on in Ireland were tuned into RTE's coverage.

On Sunday, despite being in competition with the Spanish Grand Prix, BBC Sunday Grandstand had a peak of 2.1m viewers, all but matching the figure for England's final Six Nations Championship match against Italy earlier in April. Collectively the host broadcasters attracted a phenomenal audience of pushing 4,500,000 as the Heineken Cup continually mushrooms in popularity.