The Final of the Amlin Challenge Cup will be contested between French teams Biarritz Olympique and Toulon. The game will take place at the Twickenham Stoop on Friday night, kick off 21.00 SA time.

The Amlin Challenge Cup is basically the second tier European rugby competition. To use a football analogy the Europa Leauge Cup would be football’s equivalent to the Amlin Challenge. Rugby’s premier European competition the Heineken Cup could be seen as rugby’s version of the Euopean Champions League in football.

The team sheets make for interesting reading with players from various parts of the globe joining numerous French internationals.

Biarritz have  South African prop Eugene van Staden in their team, while Toulon will be lead out by fellow South African Joe van Niekerk.

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ASM Clermont Auvergne were the last French tournament winners back in 2007 but now this all-French final that raises the curtain on ERC’s finals weekend means the coveted silverware will be proudly displayed at either Stade Aguilera or Stade Felix-Mayol for the next 12 months.

And at the final whistle of what promises to be vibrant, loud and colourful occasion there will also be a first European title for the winner, Biarritz Olympique twice contesting Heineken Cup finals and Toulon the 2010 Amlin Challenge Cup final.

Biarritz finally won their battle for Top 14 survival, hauling themselves up to ninth place, but now they have the double incentive of that trophy and automatic qualification for the 2012/13 Heineken Cup.

They have been a permanent Heineken Cup fixture for the last 12 seasons and club President Serge Blanco is desperate for that run to go into a 13th campaign.

While Biarritz have won through to the final as one of the three Heineken Cup Pool runners-up to qualify for the Amlin Challenge Cup knock-out stages, Joe van Niekerk’s Toulon are there on the back of a runaway 37-8 quarter-final victory over defending champions Harlequins and a thrilling 32-29 semi-final win against last season’s finalists Stade Français Paris.

The winners of the Amlin Man of the Match awards in those triumphs were both England internationals – and both folk heroes to the passionate Toulon fans.

Flanker Steffon Armitage, in his first season with the club, has been at the heart of their forward effort at the breakdown in particular while 2003 World Cup winning outside-half Jonny Wilkinson has amassed 220 European points in his 18 appearances in three seasons in the south of France.

That is an average of over 12 points a match and Biarritz will be primed to try and limit the goal kicking chances of Toulon’s points machine.

Biarritz have their own ace kicker in scrum half Dimitri Yachvili – 659 points in 67 European appearances – and beat two former Heineken Cup winners on route to the final, edging home 26-23 at London Wasps and winning 19-0 at home to Brive.

And while captain and No 8 Imanol Harinordoquy has provided the club with a massive boost with his timely return from a knee injury, the final will also see Sylvain Marconnet bring the curtain down on an illustrious club and country career.

The 36-year-old prop, who made his European debut back in 1997, will be playing his 88th European match and his team-mates would love to help him bow out a winner.

But, with a galaxy of international stars from around 10 nations set to parade their talents on the eve of the Heineken Cup Final across the road at Twickenham Stadium, the only certainties about this 16th tournament final is that the silverware will be heading to France engraved with the name of a new winning club.

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