SEMI-FINAL

HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL SNIPPETS - DID YOU KNOW? Toulouse and Munster will both wear red in the semi-finals - and they will have the home dressing rooms at Twickenham and the Ricoh Arena respectively. Saracens will wear their traditional all black strip and London Irish will be wearing their green and white jersey. The 24 semi-finals so far have produced 70 tries - an average of almost three a match. London Irish and Saracens are making their Heineken Cup semi-final debuts while Toulouse are appearing in their eighth and Munster their seventh semi-finals respectively. The most points scored in a tournament semi-final is 37 - by Leicester against Toulouse at Welford Road in 1996 / 1997 and by London Wasps against Munster at Lansdowne Road in 2003 / 2004. Five Munster players - Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan and Anthony Foley - have appeared in a record six semi-finals. The most points scored in a semi-final is 69, when London Wasps beat Munster 37-32 at Lansdowne Road in 2003 / 2004. The match also produced the most tries scored - seven. Only two players have scored two tries in a semi-final. Stade Francais Paris back row forward Christophe Juillet crossed the Ulster Rugby line twice at Ravenhill in 1998 / 1999 and Paul Sackey got a brace for London Wasps against Northampton Saints at the Ricoh Arena last season. Outside half Ronan O'Gara is the only player to kick two drop in a semi-final, for Munster against Toulouse at Le Stadium in 2002 / 2003. The 2003 / 2004 semi-finals had the greatest combined attendance of 82,500 when the ties were played at Lansdowne Road (Munster v London Wasps, 48,500) and at Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux (Toulouse v Biarritz Olympique, 34,000). That Munster v London Wasps attendance is the tournament record for a semi-final. The most penalty goals kicked by a player is the seven landed by Llanelli Scarlets outside half Stephen Jones against Northampton Saints at the Madejski Stadium in 1999 / 2000. The only semi-final requiring extra time was the 1998 all-French clash between Toulouse and Brive. Toulouse lost that one on a 2-1 try count. The 24 Heineken Cup semi-finals played so far have been watched by 614,817 fans - an average attendance for each of those semi-finals of 25,617. The biggest winning margin is 27 points, when Toulouse beat Swansea 30-3 in 1996. Two clubs have scored five tries in a semi-final, Leicester Tigers against Toulouse in 1997 and London Wasps against Munster in 2004, while only one semi-final has failed to produce a try - Biarritz Olympique's 18-9 win over Bath Rugby in San Sebastian in 2006.

Twickenham Could Produce Magnificent Seven

London Irish could find support coming from some unlikely sources when they clash with Toulouse at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday afternoon in the first of the weekend's Heineken Cup semi-finals.

Because while Bob Casey's team will be bidding to reach their first Heineken Cup final, they can also help the collective English cause if they win by earning a coveted seventh place for English teams - and that could prompt support from fans of the other Guinness Premiership clubs more used to hoping to get one over the Exiles.

Both England and France are guaranteed six automatic places in the tournament each season but an additional spot in Europe's premier club tournament is awarded to either England, France or Italy, depending on which country's club representatives progress further in the previous season's tournament.

A win for London Irish would mean that English clubs have progressed further than the French clubs this season, while a win for Toulouse will secure the seventh spot for France only if Munster defeat Saracens in the second semi-final.

London Irish have sold out their full allocation of 11,000 tickets for what is their first Heineken Cup semi-final against treble champions Toulouse while Toulouse expect to bring in the region of 1,000 fans to what will be their eighth Heineken Cup semi-final.

Advance tickets sales for the semi-final are currently running at around 22,000 out of the 33,000 available in the lower tier of the stadium. The remaining tickets are now available from Ticketmaster.co.uk

Some one hundred miles up the road at Coventry, with around 2,500 tickets remaining, the match is close to being a 32,000 sell-out. This will be the second Heineken Cup semi-final played at the Ricoh Arena and the third Heineken Cup match, with current sales already surpassing last season's all England semi-final between between London Wasps and Northampton Saints (16,186) and this season's Round 1 Pool 5 Match between London Wasps and Munster (22,000).

In the region of 2,500 tickets were returned to ERC by Munster, who sold 12,000 tickets to their fans, while Saracens supporters have snapped up 8,000 directly from their club with thousands more sourced by both sets of fans from Ticketmaster. All remaining tickets are now on general sale through ticketmaster.co.uk and from the ticket office at the Ricoh Arena.

Twickenham tickets are now available through ticketmaster.co.uk (0844 847 1530 / 0044 208 616 5111) and through the RFU ticket office at Rugby House, Twickenham.

Tickets are priced at £20, £30 and £40 (concessions at £10 for under 16s) and may be subject to booking fees.