The battle for the inaugural European Rugby Champions Cup at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday won’t just be a European affair, but a truly global occasion.
Between them the 2 finalists, RC Toulon and ASM Clermont Auvergne, boast an amazing 52 international players from 13 different countries.
Between them the 2 32-man squads have 1,838 Test caps.
Leading the way are the back-to-back champions, RC Toulon, with a massive 1,189, including 100-plus cappers in Bryan Habana and Martin Castrogiovanni.
Clermont, who lost to their Top 14 rivals in the 2013 Final in Dublin, have 649.
A quick check of the birth places of the 64 players reveals the destinations spread among 11 different nations each.
The French international 2nd row Jocelino Suta was born on the island of Vanuatu, while the Clermont lock Sebastien Vahaamahina was born in Nouméa, in the French territory of New Caledonia.
The English international duo of Delon and Steffon Armitage were both born in the Caribbean, in San Fernando in the islands of Trinidad & Tobago.
While Wales and Lions centre Jonathan Davies is the only English-born player in the 2 squads, having been born to Welsh speaking parents in Solihull.
But this will also be a Final with RC Toulon boasting 11 French-born players and Clermont 17.
The European champions have 9 French international players with 202 caps, while Clermont have 15 with 438.
There are players who have won caps for 15 Test teams, including the British & Irish Lions and the Pacific Islands, and the Clermont back row man Julien Bardy will become the 1st Portuguese international to win a European Cup winners medal if he plays in a winning team on Saturday.
Portugal would then become the 19th national team to join the European Cup ‘Roll of Honour’.
There are only 8 players in the 32-man RC Toulon squad who have not yet won a European Cup winners medal – Levan Chilachava, Eric Escande, Guilhem Guirado, Mamuka Gorgodze, Leigh Halfpenny, Juan-Martin Hernandez, Romain Toafifenua and Josua Tuisova.
None of the players in the Clermont squad has achieved that goal as yet.
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