Five nations will contest the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in April for the first time since the 2003/04 tournament – and for only the second time in the 17 seasons of elite European club rugby.
On a drama-packed final weekend of make-or-break Pool stage matches Edinburgh Rugby became the first Scottish club to claim Pool honours and be rewarded with an historic first quarter-final on Scottish soil after taking maximum points from their 34-11 victory over London Irish with just a few minutes to spare.
CLICK HERE FOR 22 PAGE PULLOUT SUPPLEMENT
And Ireland contributed another chapter to the history of the world’s greatest club rugby tournament with three of their clubs – Munster Rugby, Leinster Rugby and Ulster Rugby – qualifying for the last eight for the first time with former double champions Munster Rugby becoming only the eighth club to come through the Pool matches with six from six.
ASM Clermont Auvergne and Toulouse will fly the flag for France with Saracens, Cardiff Blues and Edinburgh Rugby carrying English, Welsh and Scottish hopes respectively.
And while there are those tournament “firsts” to savour, there are also some familiar achievements from Toulouse and Munster to applaud with the four-time Heineken Cup champions through to the knock-out stages for a record 14thtime and the two-time champions for the 13thtime respectively.
The knock-out stage appearances of the 2012 quarter-finalists (excluding the 1997/98 quarter-final play-offs) are:
14 – Toulouse
13 – Munster Rugby
10 – Leinster Rugby
8 – Cardiff Blues
4 – ASM Clermont Auvergne
3 – Ulster Rugby
2 – Saracens, Edinburgh Rugby
And off the pitch, other milestones were also created at the turnstiles. There were new Heineken Cup Pool attendance highs in Italy (Round 1 Aironi Rugby v Leicester Tigers – 8,151), England (Rd 3 Saracens v Ospreys – 41,063), Ireland (Rd 4 Leinster Rugby v Bath Rugby 46,365) and Scotland (Rd 6 Edinburgh Rugby v London Irish – 10,892) which all helped contribute to a total Pool attendance of 877,868 across the 72 matches, an increase of 5% on last season.
ERC, the tournament organisers, will announce the dates, venues and kick-off times for the 2012 Heineken Cup quarter-finals later this week
