The four London clubs in the Zurich Premiership - NEC Harlequins, London Wasps, London Irish and Saracens - will play their opening premiership fixtures against each other on the first Saturday of the new domestic season. The event at Twickenham aims to create real excitement in the capital city and provides supporters of all four London based clubs with a fantastic day of world class rugby at the home of England rugby. The other eight clubs will be in action over the opening weekend with fixtures to be confirmed towards the end of this season.

Taine Randall of Saracens, who was in central London today for the launch of the event, explained why he believes the London Double Header will be a treat for the London fans: "The London derbies are always popular and real occasions. By staging them on the opening weekend of the season at such a great venue as Twickenham it will make the 4th September a date not to miss for any London rugby fan."

"Having seen the support that the World Cup players received on the trophy parade through London in December I am confident that there are a lot of people in the city who are interested in rugby and who would enjoy this as another great rugby occasion even if they don't currently support one of the four London clubs. The four London clubs boast an enviable, world class line up of players making this event one not to be missed."

A coin toss determined which clubs would play with notional 'home advantage' and the fixtures will be reversed next season. London Irish will play Quins at 2.00pm and Saracens will play London Wasps at 4.15pm*. Both matches will be broadcast live by Sky Sports.

Mark Evans, NEC Harlequins Director of Rugby, is also looking forward to the new concept: "Everyone knows the problems we face with capacity at the Stoop. We are currently the smallest club in terms of capacity and have had several sell outs already this season with tickets to our last three home games already sold out."

"The history between the two clubs means the fixture between Quins and London Irish is always popular and so we could probably predict now that that game will be sold out. This initiative not only means we won't need to turn supporters away but it has the potential to become a special event in the London sporting calendar.

"Sport these days is all about staging big events, making it an experience for fans on and off the pitch and the London Double Header is a great example of this. It will hopefully become one of the sporting events in the London calendar."

Season ticket holders at all four clubs will receive a ticket as part of their club season ticket packages and additional tickets can be purchased from each of the four clubs, priced £20 / £30 to cover both matches. All kids tickets (Under 16) are priced at just £5. Tickets will be on sale from the four clubs and from Ticketmaster from Monday 29th March.

Q: What do we mean by 'notional home team'?

A: As these matches replace the matches that were previously played at home grounds, two of the teams were drawn to be 'notionally' at home in the first season. In other words they will play their home match at Twickenham in 2004, they will benefit from having the England changing room and will be listed first in the match schedules. The notional home teams for the 2004 London Double Header are London Irish and Saracens. Next year this will be reversed and it will be NEC Harlequins and London Wasps who will be the notional home teams.

Q: Will it always be on this date?

A: We have committed to playing this event as a minimum for the next two seasons. We will review the inaugural London Double Header and make a decision on the date for the 2005 London Double Header during next season.

Q: What does this mean for Season Ticket Holders?

A: All four sets of Season Ticket Holders will receive a ticket for this match as part of their Season Ticket. Clearly this is great news for each of the Season Ticket Holders and significantly improves the value of their Season Ticket. They will all be able to watch both matches with one ticket so getting double value and of course they will be guaranteed each season to see their team at Twickenham.

Season Ticket Holders will receive priority allocation of ticketing and all will be offered the best seats at Twickenham within the West and East Stands.

Additionally, all Season Ticket Holders will be entitled to purchase extra tickets for their friends and family with a 10% discount.

Season Ticket Holders will be posted a voucher for their match ticket by the club later in the year.

Q: Expected crowd?

Difficult to judge seeing as this is a brand new concept. However, the estimate from the four participating clubs is that even in the first year a crowd of around 50,000 could be expected with this growing over coming seasons.

Q: How does money get shared?

A: The monies received from this game will be divided equally between the four clubs.