On the eve of a new Champions Cup season it is worth remembering when and where it all began. The answer is 30 years ago on the shores of the Black Sea where Farul Constanta of Romania hosted France’s mighty Toulouse in the opening pool game of the old Heineken Cup on 31 October 1995.
Let’s just say they were different times. The match was played on a Tuesday and, while the crowd was recorded as 3,000, eyewitnesses were focused on the large number of security personnel with barking Alsatian dogs straining at the leash. Toulouse, boasting an array of internationals including Émile Ntamack and Thomas Castaignède, duly registered eight tries and won 54-10.
Only one British media representative – the late, great Terry Godwin – was in attendance while the Welsh referee, Robert Davies, recalled passing numerous donkey-drawn carts on the five-hour minibus journey back to Bucharest. “Every now and then the curtain would pull back on a cart and a child would shine a torch our way,” Davies subsequently told the Western Mail.
The evening function also proved to be an eye-opener. With Toulouse having to rush off to catch a charter flight home, the remaining five-strong group of match officials and tournament reps were taken out and entertained by dancers, magicians and singers in an otherwise thinly populated nightclub. “At one point several ‘ladies of the night’ appeared but, as they used to say in the newspapers, we made our excuses and left,” recounted Davies.
From small acorns and all that. It was certainly the start of a tantalising new era for the European club game. In that first season – Toulouse were duly crowned champions – England and Scotland were not represented, having declined to compete for varying reasons. Both, however, were involved the following year when Brive, fizzing with power and pace and captained by Alain Penaud, Damian’s dad, shredded Leicester in the final in Cardiff.
It is just one of a kaleidoscope of searing memories from a tournament that, at its best, had everything. Some of the cross-border battles in the early years were scarily intense, notably when Pontypridd went over to play the aforementioned Brive in an ill-tempered contest in 1997 during which a player from each side was sent off after a mass brawl. The niggle then erupted again that evening in Bar Le Toulzac amid wild west scenes of flying chairs and fists.
But amid the beastly stuff there has been much beauty, too. Four of the most compelling sporting events your correspondent has ever attended all involved Munster at various stages in their pursuit of their European holy grail. Stitch together the breathless 31-25 semi-final win over Toulouse on a roasting hot day in Bordeaux’s Stade Chaban-Delmas in 2000, the “Miracle Match” against Gloucester in Limerick in 2003, the barely believable 37-32 semi-final win for Wasps in Dublin the following season and the 30-6 semi-final drubbing of Leinster in 2006 and Munster’s contribution to European history is impossible to overlook.
The best side ever to lift the trophy? Probably a split decision between the brilliant Toulon side who won successive titles in 2013 and 2014 and the modern Toulouse juggernaut with Antoine Dupont at the wheel. For sheer showpiece excitement you also have to credit Leicester, Leinster and Exeter Chiefs for winning quite extraordinarily vivid final games in, respectively, 2001, 2011 and 2020.
But maybe what truly elevated the tournament were the dramatic eccentricities – some of them beyond bizarre – that have entered rugby folklore. Remember, for example, the deflected drop goal off a Llanelli player by Elton Moncrieff that earned Gloucester a 28-27 pool win in 2001. “When a drop goal hits someone on the arse and bounces over how do you blame yourself for that?” sighed Llanelli’s frustrated coach, Gareth Jenkins, afterwards.
The Breakdown was also present earlier the same season when Wasps’ Richard Birkett, leaping up to try to intercept a long-range penalty attempt by Diego Domínguez at Loftus Road, inadvertently knocked the ball over the bar to help Stade Français win by three points.
Then – move over Scott McTominay – there was Geordan Murphy’s overhead kick for Leicester against Swansea that narrowly failed to yield the ultimate crowd-pleasing try at Welford Road, again in 2001. Not to mention Tim Stimpson’s kick from another postcode that bounced off bar and post from fully 60 metres out to win the Tigers a semi-final at Nottingham’s City Ground in 2002, again at Llanelli’s expense.
From Bloodgate to the “Hand of Back” to the gripping 2009 semi-final penalty shootout in Cardiff there was, for years, no other tournament like it. What a pity, then, that its allure is in some danger of diminishing as it enters its fourth decade. Whether it is the format – six pools of four teams with two second-place “fastest losers” making sure every single point truly mattered and every fixture was connected – or familiarity or the seeding minutiae that gave certain teams crucial home knockout advantage, the pool stages have not had the same frisson.
It would also be nice if a wider spread of European nations were involved. Beyond the South African sides plus Black Lion from Georgia in the Challenge Cup, it is otherwise the same old Six Nations suspects. No Spain, no Portugal, no Belgium and – these days – no plucky Romanian hopefuls either. Club rugby in Europe has come a long way in some respects but – let’s be honest – less so in others.
Welsh woe
These are painful times in Welsh rugby in the wake of their 73-0 home defeat by South Africa but it is worth remembering that the national team has endured similarly dark days before. In 1998, Wales lost 96-13 against the Springboks in South Africa, only to rebound and defeat England at Wembley less than a year later. And what happened next? In the dozen years after that Pretoria mauling they went on to collect three Six Nations grand slams. Something to cling to there, perhaps, in these most difficult of days.
One to watch
Official confirmation that the proposed R360 “revolution” has been delayed until at least 2028 has been coming for weeks. Ever since the world’s major unions made clear that players who signed up would be ineligible for Test selection, the writing was on the dressing room wall and it will require something seismic for that situation to shift.
Which makes the bullish statement from those behind the R360 concept that they still intend to launch in 2028 “at full scale with maximum global impact from the outset” more than a little optimistic. “We’re building something bold and new that will resonate globally – and we cannot wait to show the world in 2028,” said Mike Tindall, the former England centre turned R360 board member. In other breaking news, the Earth is flat and moon is made of cheese.
Memory lane
Jean-Pierre Rives gathers his thoughts during a muddy encounter between his Racing side and Carcassonne at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris back in December 1984. Rives won 59 caps for France and captained his country 34 times, becoming a visual artist after his retirement from the sport. “Sculpture is just invention and energy,” Rives, now 72, once said. “Rugby is energy too … and invention sometimes.”
Still want more?
England World Cup winner Abby Dow has shocked the game after quitting rugby to prioritise a career in engineering.
Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, tells Luke McLaughlin about swapping banking for the oval ball and his “bromance” with Sam Vesty.
Manu Tuilagi has refused to rule out playing for Samoa at the 2027 World Cup … leaving open the tasty possibility of him facing Steve Borthwick’s England.
The Wallabies’ schedule for next year offers scope for both hope and headaches, Angus Fontaine reckons.
… and meanwhile the World Cup draw on Wednesday will afford the 2027 hosts what should be smooth sailing to the quarter-finals, Jack Snape reports.
