Blues and Marseille crowd make history
Thu, 27 May 2010 14:22
Cardiff Blues became the first team from Wales to win a European club rugby title when they beat RC Toulon 28-21 in a thrilling Amlin Challenge Cup final at Marseille's Stade Velodrome.
And while the Welsh region was creating that slice of history, the bumper crowd of 48,990 was also a tournament record, smashing the old mark of 31,986 set back in Lyon in 1999 when Bourgoin and Montferrand [now ASM Clermont Auvergne] clashed in an all-French affair.
Only teams from England [8] and France [5] had previously won the prestigious title but now Wales have joined the elite of European champions.
They also became the first team to lift the trophy after starting the season in the Heineken Cup, the Blues one of three Pool runners-up to join the five Amlin Challenge Cup Pool winners in the knock-out stages in an innovation that paid handsome dividends.
The end result was an original Amlin Challenge Cup team against an original
Heineken Cup team in what many consider one of the best of the tournament’s 14 finals in quality, intensity, drama and sheer electric atmosphere.
The finals of the two ERC tournaments were watched by 127,952 fans – beating the old combined mark set in season 2003/04 by over 32,000 - with 1,081,430 fans going through the turnstiles for the 79 Heineken Cup matches.