'Spectacular': Leinster receive a massive Croke Park boost
SPOTLIGHT: All available tickets for the Champions Cup semifinals have been sold as the weekend featuring the high-profile last-four matches between Leinster and Northampton Saints, and Stade Toulousain and Harlequins, on May 4/5 is set to be a major success.
Every ticket on offer for the much-anticipated clash of Leinster and Northampton at Dublin’s iconic Croke Park on Saturday, May 4 has already been sold in the space of just a few hours on Friday (April 19).
Demand was also extremely high for the meeting of five-time winners, Stade Toulousain, and first-time semifinalists, Harlequins, at the 33,000-capacity Le Stadium in Toulouse on Sunday, May 5 and again, all available tickets have been snapped up.
EPCR is therefore expecting a spectacular total attendance for the two matches of over 110,000 fans.
A host of world-class stars are set to be on show at the 82,300-capacity Croke Park including Leinster’s Player of the Year nominees Caelan Doris, Jamison Gibson-Park, James Lowe and Dan Sheehan, as well as Northampton’s contenders for the prestigious award, Courtney Lawes and Fin Smith.
Croke Park will stage its first club rugby match since the historic showdown between Leinster and Munster in 2009, and the contest is a repeat of the dramatic 2011 tournament Final in Cardiff between Leinster and Northampton which saw the Irish province stage one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the tournament.
Stade Toulousain, who are aiming to set a new record of six tournament wins, will face Harlequins who overcame Union Bordeaux-Bègles 42-41 in a thrilling quarterfinal last weekend.