BATH play host to Gloucester in the Guinness Premiership on Saturday week in a derby that should draw a capacity crowd of 10,500. At the same time, across the Channel, a rugby match will be witnessed by the biggest crowd for any regular sporting event, including football, seen in France.

Almost 80,000 tickets have been sold for the league game between Stade Français and Toulouse — 12,000 more than the best-attended football match in the Barclays Premiership this season. The match has attracted such interest that Stade moved it from their 12,000-capacity home to the Stade de France, the national stadium in Paris.

“It has become a national event,” Pascal Simonin, the director-general of the Stade de France, said. “It was a bit of a mad gamble because Stade de France had never opened its gates to a simple championship match before, not in football or rugby. We decided to try a hitherto impossible challenge: to fill Stade de France for the ninth round of the league.”

He succeeded and no tickets will now be sold on the gate. “The passionate rugby fans answered the call,” Simonin said.

Although they are 350 miles apart, there is great rivalry between the clubs, who have won ten of the past 12 league titles between them and contested last season’s Heineken Cup final, won by Toulouse, who have won their first seven games this season and lead Stade by seven points. Stade have moved their Heineken Cup match against Leicester on October 29 to the 20,000-seat Charlety Stadium in Paris.

TWO'S COMPANY; 93,260 IS A CROWD