Leicester Tigers are the only non-French side involved as fans return to Twickenham to provide rugby’s biggest crowd since Covid-19 brought sport to a halt 14 months ago.
Steve Borthwick described his resurgent Tigers side as “massive underdogs” in their Challenge Cup final against star-studded Montpellier tonight.
The top prize, the Heineken Champions Cup, will be competed for by La Rochelle and Toulouse. Those two sides lead the Top 14 league, too.
La Rochelle bring a star-studded pack, including All Black Victor Vito, France’s Gregory Alldritt and Australian Will Skelton. Toulouse have electric backs, such as Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont and Cheslin Kolbe.
There will be a crowd of 10,000 at Twickenham, which only hosted 2,000 fans for England’s Autumn Nations Cup final against France in December.
“We’re delighted to be able to welcome back up to 10,000 on Friday and again on Saturday for what should be two exciting EPCR finals,” said RFU Chief Executive Bill Sweeney. “The fans really do make the game and we hope everyone is looking forward to attending live rugby again at Twickenham.”
