A very special step into the unknown

While the meetings to try to save the Heineken Cup will continue in Dublin this afternoon, it will probably go unnoticed that 18 years ago, on January 7, 1996, the first final was staged at the National Ground, Cardiff Arms Park.

Toulouse eventually ran out winners after extra-time over Cardiff in a game played on a Sunday and broadcast by ITV. At least there is some synergy between then and now – the first year was played without any English clubs! What today’s warring factions might consider when they try to tip-toe their way through the ruins of European club rugby is that the inaugural competition was set up in a matter of months and helped to form the most successful club rugby tournament on the planet.

If you ask some of those players who featured in that final how it felt, they will all tell you it was like stepping into the unknown. Yet, to a man, they all knew they were involved in something special.