61,248 attendance at Sarries v Toulouse on a Friday evening

by quinsforever Mon 21 Oct 2013, 12:01 am

Whatever else anyone says, that is a lot people showing up to watch live rugby on a Friday evening. Well done Sarries for being brave enough to try to fill up Wembley, while at the same time effectively giving away the advantage of playing on your real "home" turf.

by The Saint Mon 21 Oct 2013, 12:24 am

Toulouse fans always travel in numbers. Credit to the French Smile

.

by whocares Mon 21 Oct 2013, 12:33 am

No need to travel even for the 200,000 french living in london as well Smile

by doctor_grey Mon 21 Oct 2013, 12:45 am

Of course it is great. Every time a club is making an effort to bring more people to watch Rugby it is a very good thing. Especially if they are successful, and I will credit 60,000 people as a success - and yet still something to build on.

by quinsforever Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:36 am

The Saint wrote:Toulouse fans always travel in numbers. Credit to the French .

were they the ones in red and black? Very Happy

by TJ Mon 21 Oct 2013, 8:45 am

its a great turnout no doubt,

by Mickado Mon 21 Oct 2013, 9:11 am

It does beg the question, is it worth having a large attendance if you lose? I mean, Sarries played Leinster in Wembley a few years back and they lost that one too. Is it really worth the extra few quid they get to essentially give up home advantage?

by Brendan Mon 21 Oct 2013, 9:19 am

I know its soccer but Arsenal use to play in wembley in europe and not do so well on the bigger pitch as they weren't use to it.

Sarries like Arsenal at the time is much more suited to a narrow pitch so i think wembley plays against their style. Saying that in phyisical battles with the French teams doesn't end well for them

by TJ Mon 21 Oct 2013, 9:20 am

Is "home advantage" having the crowd mainly on your side or is it playing at your home ground?

by **Biltong** Mon 21 Oct 2013, 9:22 am

that is a great number.

well done to both teams' supporters. clap

by beshocked Mon 21 Oct 2013, 9:53 am

Mickado very true. It's only worth it if you win. Was so close to be a resounding success but a loss hits Saracens' hopes in the HC hard.

The reality is that Sarries are far less effective at Wembley than Allianz Park for example.

Unfortunately yet again another loss at Wembley. Good attendance but the "home" team needs to win or it leave the majority of those going to be disappointed.

Performance wise Sarries did pretty well I thought but didn't quite do the job. You have to win these kind of matches to be a proper contender for the HC.

Wembley is no fortress. It's a happy hunting ground for away sides. Draw to Leicester,loss to Quins,Leinster and Toulouse. Not good at all.

Sarries are a strong side away from home though so all is not lost.

by Guest Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:13 pm

I'd like to know how many of those were neutral fans?

I'm contemplating going to the Heineken Cup final in the Millennium Stadium even though its unlikely the Blues will be there just because the atmosphere would be good.

by thebandwagonsociety Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:21 pm

IronMike wrote:I'd like to know how many of those were neutral fans?

I'm contemplating going to the Heineken Cup final in the Millennium Stadium even though its unlikely the Blues will be there just because the atmosphere would be good.

I'd definitely recommend it. I've been to a few and even at the likes of Biarritz v Toulouse in Paris a few years back the banter and chat amongst all the fans and the neutrals was great. Also seeing the random connacht, wasps, tigers, munster, edinburgh, osprey jerseys before, during and after gave the weekend a great feel.

by Scrumpy Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:28 pm

Good to see that rugby on a Friday can work, and well done to the fans home/away and neutral for turning up and playing their part. thumbsup

by thebandwagonsociety Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:31 pm

TJ wrote:Is "home advantage" having the crowd mainly on your side or is it playing at your home ground?

It should be the familiar crowd, the more set match day routine (well used to getting to the ground, match day meals, warm-ups, dressing room) all being familiar. For kickers they better understand how the ground undulates, how it might fall away in a particular corner, how the wind might catch a ball if kicking from a certain direction. It is also likely the case that your home ground is a smaller ground, so the supporters closer to the field, more 'influence' of crowd reaction possibly influencing the refs interpretation of the infringements (home town decisions).

On the size of the pitch, the pitch is only defined by lines, so it should still have been Sarries who decided whether to have it narrow/wide and how deep to have the in-goal areas along with the length. If they left it big it means their either (a) wanted a big field to keep the big Toulouse side running around on or (b) were niave and didn't think about it.

by Brendan Mon 21 Oct 2013, 1:33 pm

The one thing Sarries have shown is that there is a large support for rugby in london.

I think if there was one big dominant club in London the sky would be the limit.

by Metal Tiger Mon 21 Oct 2013, 2:10 pm

Mickado wrote:It does beg the question, is it worth having a large attendance if you lose? I mean, Sarries played Leinster in Wembley a few years back and they lost that one too. Is it really worth the extra few quid they get to essentially give up home advantage?

Back in the day Tigers played two HEC quarter finals at LCFCs ground (used to be called Walkers Stadium but I think they may have changed the name?) we got record crowds (for us) but both games were lost. The fans hated it.... for a variety of reasons... and we have never played there since.

by SecretFly Mon 21 Oct 2013, 2:29 pm

London is a big city, with great infrastructure and..plenty do after a game..............

So, Wembley is a big Stadium
So, Saracens Fans certainly arrived
Toulouse fans (and English based French people) certainly arrived

HC fans? There must have been a sprinkling of them
HC fans with affiliations different to Saracens/Toulouse but who live in and around London so why not? Yep, there must have been some of them too.

All in all - a nice HC event, nice publicity for the event, and a bloody tense and entertaining game to boot.
No losers, just winners...except the losers,who came oh so close to being winners Wink

Here's to the next round of HC.

by Scrumpy Mon 21 Oct 2013, 2:32 pm

I remember one of them well. Very Happy

Leicester Tigers record at the wendyball stadium- played 6, won 4, lost 2

Not too bad.

by nathan Mon 21 Oct 2013, 6:08 pm

certainly did a better job of it than the ERC did last time.

by SecretFly Mon 21 Oct 2013, 6:09 pm

I hear the ERC was the second shooter on the grassy knoll too.... wikileaks has more on that story.

by thebandwagonsociety Mon 21 Oct 2013, 6:12 pm

SecretFly wrote:I hear the ERC was the second shooter on the grassy knoll too.... wikileaks has more on that story.

by SecretFly Mon 21 Oct 2013, 6:32 pm

The cactus has water in it bandwagon, you'll be okay for a day or two. The rescue party is on the way. Cool

by 21st Century Schizoid Man Mon 21 Oct 2013, 7:05 pm

Incredible attendance clap

by VietGwentRevisited Mon 21 Oct 2013, 8:54 pm

Metal Tiger wrote:
Mickado wrote:It does beg the question, is it worth having a large attendance if you lose? I mean, Sarries played Leinster in Wembley a few years back and they lost that one too. Is it really worth the extra few quid they get to essentially give up home advantage?
Back in the day Tigers played two HEC quarter finals at LCFCs ground (used to be called Walkers Stadium but I think they may have changed the name?) we got record crowds (for us) but both games were lost. The fans hated it.... for a variety of reasons... and we have never played there since.

Did they not play a few matches at the Walkers when the new stand was being built a couple of years ago?

From memory one of those defeats had quite probably the most shameful bit of playacting ever with 2 front row forwards sin-binned, the opponents claimed they had no-one left to play there - so the match went to uncontested scrums. Mind you was still pretty rubbish that a team with World Cup winners in it could not score with a two man advantage. So a mix of cheating and choking I guess.

by thebandwagonsociety Tue 22 Oct 2013, 7:17 am

VietGwentRevisited wrote:
Metal Tiger wrote:
Mickado wrote:It does beg the question, is it worth having a large attendance if you lose? I mean, Sarries played Leinster in Wembley a few years back and they lost that one too. Is it really worth the extra few quid they get to essentially give up home advantage?
Back in the day Tigers played two HEC quarter finals at LCFCs ground (used to be called Walkers Stadium but I think they may have changed the name?) we got record crowds (for us) but both games were lost. The fans hated it.... for a variety of reasons... and we have never played there since.
Did they not play a few matches at the Walkers when the new stand was being built a couple of years ago?

From memory one of those defeats had quite probably the most shameful bit of playacting ever with 2 front row forwards sin-binned, the opponents claimed they had no-one left to play there - so the match went to uncontested scrums. Mind you was still pretty rubbish that a team with World Cup winners in it could not score with a two man advantage. So a mix of cheating and choking I guess.

Did that team have a former hooker playing at flanker at the time?

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