The European Rugby Cup has pulled over 250,000 people through the turnstiles after 36 matches, a 25 per cent increase on last year's figures. Eight matches have attracted more than 10,000 people, with Toulouse and Saracens hitting five figures for both their home matches so far.

Munster have also cracked the magic five-figure mark along with Newport, Biarritz and Leicester to take the total number of fans attending games to 255,376 compared to 205,406 for the same stage last season.

Television coverage is also up. Twenty of the first 36 games have been covered live and have pulled in an average of 6 million viewers each weekend over the seven networks. No wonder ERC blazers are smiling.