Preview: Perpignan v Toulon

Barcelona's Olympic Stadium will play host to an all-French Heineken Cup quarter-final between Perpignan and Toulon on Saturday.

Barcelona's Olympic Stadium will play host to an historic all-French Heineken Cup quarter-final between Perpignan and Toulon on Saturday.

With all 55,000 tickets already sold, the Catalan capital will set a new European quarter-final attendance record, bettering the benchmark of 48,500 set at the old Lansdowne Road when Leinster hosted Leicester Tigers in 2005.

Perpignan have taken the bold step of moving the play-off away from their fortress at Stade Aimé Giral to fulfill a long-held dream of sharing European rugby with their Catalan neighbours on the Spanish side of the border.

After a string of disappointing Heineken Cup campaigns, USAP are looking to make it past the quarter-finals for the first time since 2003. On that occasion they made it all the way to the final, losing out to eventual champions Toulouse in Dublin.

Toulon on the other hand have surprised many by topping their Pool in their first year in the competition to make it into the knock-out stages.

Victory over Munster earlier this season and last week's demolition of Stade Français in the Top 14 suggests that Philippe Saint-André's side are well equipped to improve on their runners-up finish in last year's Amlin Challenge Cup.

Perpignan have also been in good form on the domestic front, stringing together five consecutive wins before losing narrowly to Toulouse last weekend.

The Catalans have been boosted by the return of three centres as David Marty starts after serving a suspension. He will partner Philippe Grandclaude in midfield while Gavin Hume sits on the bench as both return from injury.

Perpignan will however be without hooker Marius Tincu (knee) and loose forward Jean-Pierre Pérez (shoulder).

Lock Rimas Alvarez Kairelis is on the verge of making history by becoming the first Argentinean player to qualify for an ERC Elite 50 cap award. The Pumas second rower starts on the bench.

Toulon have left Felipe Contepomi on the bench as Jonny Wilkinson and Gabi Lovobalavu form the 10-12 partnership. Former Wales centre Gavin Henson is not eligible having played for Saracens this season.

Former England winger Paul Sackey is back for Toulon but will have to settle for a place amongst the replacements as former Auckland Blues flyer Rudi Wulf starts on the right wing.

Former All Blacks prop Carl Hayman does not feature in the matchday 23.

Players to watch:

For Perpignan: French international centre David Marty is lucky to be eligible for selection after seeing his suspension for fighting reduced by ten days on appeal. Marty threw at least two massive haymakers in a series of punch-ups against Bayonne a few weeks ago. With plenty of tension in the air, Marty will need to keep a cool head as USAP will look to the 31-cap international to be the cornerstone of their back-line.

For Toulon: “He leads from the front” is an overused cliché but you would be hard-pressed to find a more impassioned or talismanic leader than Joe van Niekerk. Anyone who thinks Toulon's skipper is no more than a mere mercenary should watch him next time he runs out the tunnel. You can almost see the steam emanating from the former Bok number eight's nostrils. When “Big Joe” has a big day, his team is very hard to beat.

Head-to-head: It might seem like a cop out to pick the fly-halves but Nicolas Laharrague has a very tough afternoon ahead of him against Jonny Wilkinson. Toulon rely heavily on Wilko to control the game but Laharrague has the luxury of playing behind a massive pack.

Prediction: It's a tough one to call. It would normally be very difficult to bet against Perpignan at home. Even if USAP can count on plenty of Catalan support in Barcelona, Toulon will welcome the change of venue. With a more settled side and Wilkinson's boot, we'll back RCT. Toulon by a whisker.

The teams:

USA Perpignan: 15 Jérôme Porical, 14 Adrien Plante, 13 David Marty, 12 Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, 11 Julien Candelon, 10 Nicolas Laharrague, 9 Florian Cazenave, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Damien Chouly, 6 Bertrand Guiry, 5 Robins Tchale Watchou, 4 Guillaume Vilaceca, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Jérôme Schuster,
Replacements: 16 Charles Geli, 17 Perry Freshwater, 18 Kisi Pulu, 19 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 20 David Mele, 21 Gavin Hume, 22 Joffrey Michel, 23 Ovidiu Tonita,

RC Toulon:15 Rory Lamont, 14 Rudi Wulf, 13 Geoffroy Messina, 12 Gabi Lovobalavu, 11 Christian Loamanu, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Pierre Mignoni, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 George Smith, 6 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 5 Dean Schofield, 4 Kris Chesney, 3 Davit Kubriashvili, 2 Sebastien Bruno, 1 Laurent Emmanuelli.
Replacements: 16 Jean-Philippe Genevois, 17 Saimone Taumoepeau, 18 Damien Tussac, 19 Joe El Abd, 20 Felipe Contepomi, 21 Paul Sackey, 22 Fabien Cibray, 23 Christophe Samson,

Date: Saturday, April 9
Venue: Barcelona Olympic Stadium, Barcelona
Kick-off: 16:30 local (14:30 GMT)
Referee: Alain Rolland