Twickenham will host 2007 Heineken Cup final
Tuesday, 25 April 2006 18:54The 2007 Heineken Cup final will be staged at Twickenham, it was announced today.
Although all 82,000 seats at the expanded stadium are expected to be in use for this year's autumn internationals in November, next May's final will be the first match at the fully redeveloped headquarters of English rugby.
It is hoped that the whole project, including the new hotel complex, will be completed by then and Derek McGrath, chief executive of tournament organisers European Rugby Cup, said: "It will be a fantastic stadium and we are looking forward to going there.
"The Heineken Cup is growing year on year and it will be a fitting showpiece for the first match at the newly-refurbished stadium."
The final will be held on the weekend of May 19-20 but it has not yet been decided if the match will be played on the Saturday or the Sunday.
The Rugby Football Union and Twickenham Stadium won the bid to host the world's biggest club rugby final which will be held in London for the third time.
Twickenham hosted the 2000 and 2004 finals, with English sides carrying off the silverware on both occasions.
Northampton beat Irish side Munster 9-8 in the fifth final in 2000 and four years later Wasps overcame French team Toulouse 27-20.
The 2000 final was played in front of a then record Heineken Cup crowd of 68,441 and the current record of 74,600 from the 2002 final between Leicester and Munster in Cardiff could well be beaten next year.
