Heineken Cup Final At Lansdowne Road

Over 7,000 French visitors are expected to swell the crowd at today’s Heineken Cup Final to the 25,000 mark as Toulouse and Perpignan do battle for the biggest honour in club rugby in the northern hemisphere. The French have arrived on specially chartered flights – a group of 18 eventually landed in Dublin having travelled from Perpignan to Barcelona by taxi, taken a plane to Rome and then flown from the Italian capital to Dublin – and Dublin city will push out the boat to welcome the visiting fans. Tournament organisers ERC will be handing out 16,000 flags, rattles and pom-poms to fans going into the game and to set the scene before the game, the world renowned Red Arrows, will fly over Lansdowne Road trailing the colours of the French Tricolour, blue, white and red, in their vapour trails.

One of the biggest single group of supporters will come from Leixlip in Co Kildare, the home town of Trevor Brennan, to cheer on the man who started his rugby career in Barnhall RFC. Brennan has since moved to the famous Stade Toulousain where he has become something of a cult hero and most of the neutral support will be hoping for a Touoluse victory because of the big man from Barnhall.

Toulouse are the bookies favourites but this is the third successive time Perpignan have been asked to don the underdog mantle and it’s one that seems to suit. This is however their biggest test and they will need to improve on their semi-final performance if they are to deny the aristocrats of French rugby their second Heineken title.

Perpignan. J-M Souverbie; P Bomati, P Giordani, C Manas, F Cermeno; M Edmonds, L Loustau; R Peillard, M Konieck, N Mas, J Thion, R Alvarez-Kairelis, G Le Corvec, P Murphy, B Goutta (capt).
Replacements: M Dal Maso, S de Besombes, C Porcu, L Mallier, J Basset, N Laharrague, D Marty.

Toulouse. C Poitrenaud; E Ntamack, X Garbajosa, Y Jauzion, V Clerc; Y Delaigue, F Michalak; B Lecouls, Y Bru, J-B Poux, D Gerard, F Pelous (capt), T Brennan, C Labit, J Bouilhou.
Replacements: C Soulette, W Servat, G Lamboley, F Maka, S Dupuy, C Heymans, C Desbrosse.

Referee: Chris White (England).