The Edinburgh 09 Heineken Cup final will be played at Murrayfield on Saturday, May 23, 2009.

ERC, the tournament oganisers, today announced that the second final to be staged in the Scottish capital will kick-off at 5.00 pm and will be broadcast live by Sky Sports and France 2. Another 2,500 tickets have been sold since the main tournament launch ten days ago and total advance sales are now running at over 20,000 tickets.

The Heineken Cup returned at the weekend and a record 152,991 fans poured through the turnstiles across Europe in Round 1 as two grounds established attendance records for Pool matches. The upsurge in attendances came on top of millions of armchair viewers enjoying 10 live games across the tournament's broadcast platform.

The biggest crowd of the weekend was in Toulouse, where last season's finalists pipped Bath 18-16 in a thrilling Pool 5 clash. There were 31,885 fans crammed into the Le Stadium in Toulouse - almost 10,000 more than saw the two teams play at the same venue back in 2000.

Munster's refurbished Thomond Park established a record European Pool gate for the Irish Province with 23,500 as they launched their defence of the title with a narrow win over Montauban in Pool 1, while in the other Pool 1 match ASM Clermont Auvergne's 15,681 gate against Sale Sharks was a club record for the tournament.

The previous record for the opening round of the Heineken Cup was last season's 128,587, while the previous best attendance for any Pool round was the 136,965 who watched Round 2 in the 2006/07 campaign It was the 24th time in the tournament's history that a round of Pool matches had attracted more than 100,000 fans and was the 13th in a row.

Heineken Cup Attendance Records Round by Round

Round 1: 152,991 - 2008/09 Round 2: 136,965 - 2006/07 Round 3: 134,634 - 2006/07 Round 4: 126,084 - 2007/08 Round 5: 128,020 - 2005/06 Round 6: 115,886 - 2007/08

For the third time in 10 seasons since the tournament went to six Pools of four teams there were five away wins in the opening round. The first time that happened was in 2001/02, when there was also a draw, while the last time was in 2006/07.

In the sixth season of bonus points at the Pool stages, there were four losing bonus points picked up as a third of the games finished within seven or less points dividing the two teams. The tight nature of the games was also reflected in the overall try count, which was down on last season's Round 1 tally of 58 and the 51 in 2006/07. There were only 43 tries scored in the opening 12 games of this season's campaign.

Round 1 Try Tally

2008/09 - 43 2007/08 - 58 2006/07 - 51 2005/06 - 53 2004/05 - 33 2003/04 - 46

Round 1 also saw the 100th clash between English and Welsh sides in the Heineken Cup when Leicester Tigers beat the Ospreys 12-6 at Welford Road. Welsh club sides were among the founder members of the tournament back in 1995/96, when Cardiff reached the inaugural final. However, that remains the only Welsh representation in the final, while English clubs have carried off the European crown six times and have reached two other finals.

The first Anglo-Welsh clash in the Heineken Cup came at Loftus Road on Sunday, 13 October, 1996, when Cardiff beat London Wasps 26-24 thanks to two tries from Rob Howley and two drop goals from Jonathan Davies. All the home points came from the boot of Canadian outside half Gareth Rees.

The running total to date shows the English clubs having the ascendancy with 59 wins to 38 defeats and three draws The 101st fixture in the tournament will be Sunday's Round 2 clash between Bath and Newport Gwent Dragons at The Recreation Ground, which kicks-0ff at 1.00pm. The 102nd game will start two hours later when Gloucester visit the Millennium Stadium to take on Cardiff Blues.