Toulouse v Leinster 25.05.24

At long last, the sun finally appeared over London for the Rugby Champions Cup final between European aristocrats Toulouse and Ireland’s most successful rugby province, Leinster.

Coming up the steps of Seven Sisters tube it just hit you. The beautiful weather, the sea of fans in red or blue and the buzz of anticipation which hung in the air. You could sense it was going to be a special day.

The walk to the stadium

If you’ve never been, it’s a very long walk from the tube up the Tottenham High Road to the Stadium and there’s much to keep you interested en route in this diverse part of London, with its myriad of cultures, culinary options and pre-match waterholes. It’s hard to believe Tottenham was once a village but if you look closely, there’s a lot of hidden history within what is today a very high density urban environment.

To add to the vibrancy, there were plenty of supporters of other clubs wearing their colours, including a fair few from Harlequins, who had no doubt taken a punt and purchased tickets prior to their epic semi final defeat to Toulouse a few week before.

Pre-match entertainment

Continue for half a mile or so and eventually you see the stadium rising up in the distance and the High Road is thankfully closed off to traffic. For the final, there were no official fan zones where people could gather, so it was very much DIY, with fans setting up their own hospitality areas on strips of grass, kerbs and verges with food and booze purchased from a huge Aldi supermarket nearby and topped up from the masses of small independent shops when stocks ran low. Everyone was getting stuck in and enjoying the fine weather.

The match

The match itself was epic, as once again the Rugby Champions Cup delivered a match of absolute incredible physicality and passion, one that saw 14 man Toulouse defeat Leinster after extra-time courtesy of a Matthis Lebel try to take their record sixth Champions Cup victory.

Antoine Dupont, as ever, orchestrated matters for the French side, and Thomas Ramos kicked a flurry of goals to take their team to an ultimately deserved triumph.

The Victoria

After the match I decided to stop off at the Victoria, a fine old pub close to the stadium, which was purchased by a local business woman in 2023 and sympathetically refurbished. I enjoyed a couple of beers and some good conversation before beginning the long trek back to Seven Sisters station.

It was a mad evening on the tube. As well as the thousands of rugby fans trying to get into central London, it was also the day of the FA Cup final so both sets of Manchester football fans were also moving around the capital. Amazing to think Wembley is only 12 miles from Tottenham Hotspur stadium and that London can cope with two huge sporting events on the same day.

Final thoughts

A great choice of stadium to host European rugby’s showpiece event. When you’re there, you can’t help being impressed by the design and appreciate the wider community benefits it brings to this part of London. The match lived up to all expectations, the sun finally shone, so all in all a great day out.