Heineken Cup Semi Sold Out
23/04/02.Both Heineken Cup semi-finals are sold out and will have a combined attendance of 50,000 and an armchair television audience well into seven-figures.
Tickets for the 29,500 capacity City Ground in Nottingham to watch Leicester Tigers defend their title against Llanelli on Sunday are long since gone and Stade de la Miditerranie in Biziers will be full to its 20,400 brim when Castres Olympique clash with Munster on Saturday.
Leicester Tigers go into their semi-final with the English Premiership crown already safely tucked away for a fourth straight season and Llanelli are through to the Welsh Cup final and lead the Welsh/Scottish League.
A true clash of champions then in Notingham with the Tigers’ captain billing it The Batle of Britain.,p>Castres Olympique have won their battle for survival in the French Championship top flight while Munster were just pleased to get back into action against Leinster after months of being in moth-balls.
We got together last Monday (22 April) for the first time in 12 weeks, said coach Declan Kidney. There were four other occasions in that time we had a brief gathering, but we had to have that game against Leinster.2
“At least the other club sides left in the tournament have had fixtures since the quarter-finals. Even if they have only been able to play half of their top team, they’ve at least had a run out.2
“History shows that nine of the 12 semi-finals in the Heineken Cup have been won by the home side. That shows how difficult it is going to be for us. Castres are a very strong, physical team with no small amount of ability.”
We have played, and done well, in France in the past, but when we beat Toulouse in Bordeaux in the semi-final two years ago there was a real element of surprise. There was a little bit of that still there last year, when we almost beat Stade Francais in Lille, but there will be no surprise element in this game.