The evolution of the European Cup: ‘They were jumping and lifting - we didn’t know what they were doing!’
Rugby's European Cup is almost unrecognisable from its inaugural season as the silver anniversary approaches its climax, but this weekend’s quarter-finals will throw up a surprising similarity.
Admittedly, it’s taken a pandemic to create such a scenario, but for former Leinster staff and players, today’s nearly empty Aviva Stadium will conjure memories of their first game in the competition.
In November 1995, Silvio Berlusconi’s Milan Rugby were the opposition, and the numbers present for this historic Wednesday afternoon encounter are still debated. But if it got into four figures at the Stadio Giuriati, they were doing well.
AIL club rugby was still the big draw in Ireland, and when Jim Glennon took his mostly amateur Leinster side to Italy, it was a novelty for many of those involved.
“It was great craic, I remember it well,” says Niall Woods, now an agent working with many of Ireland’s elite professionals.
“It was around that time that we started first as Leinster as you now know it. We played more games together so there was more of a club team feel to it, where before that playing for Leinster was like playing for Ireland.”
Conor O’Shea was on loan from London Irish with a clause allowing him to play for the Irish province, and he became their first try scorer in the competition. But Milan fought back with two tries from Roberto Crottti and Marco Platania, and if legendary Italian out-half Diego Dominguez had worn his kicking boots, the hosts would have won the game.
“It was played on a Wednesday afternoon, about 2.30pm, on a very wet and heavy pitch,” Woods recalls.
“They were absolutely filthy. Dominguez played and he should have been used to the conditions, but his kicking was awful, with just three from 10. They would have won easily if he was on form.
“With time running out I was so cold and bored on the wing, I went in to nearer our out-half, beat a big donkey and took off to score the winner.”
That was enough to give the visitors victory, and they hit up an Irish bar in Milan later that night. “We had a bit of fun...but it was pretty dour where we stayed as well, very industrial.”
A home win over Pontypridd in Lansdowne Road followed, where a few thousand bemused fans watched on, earning Leinster a semi-final spot. A secretive deal was thrashed out to give each Leinster player £300 if they beat Cardiff. The disgruntled board didn’t need to get out the cheque book.
The amateurish nature was highlighted by the fact that had Leinster won, they’d have gone to the final with half a team, since Ireland had scheduled a trip to the US on the same date.
“You couldn’t foresee what it was going to become, it seemed a bit of a novelty,” Woods says now, of the European Cup.
A few weeks earlier, Ulster had enjoyed their own brutal introduction to Europe.
Cardiff away was a tough opening fixture, and Gary Longwell recalls being blown away by their Welsh opposition.
He said: “We just weren’t set up for it. In some ways it was a little too late. We had a fantastic side in the 80s, (Ulster won or shared 10 Interpro titles in a row from 1985-94) but the likes of Philip Matthews, Trevor Ringland, Keith Crossan, Nigel Carr...they’d all finished so we were quite light.”
Heading to Cardiff, the players lacked any serious insight on the players they would face, and when it came to a first lineout, Longwell and his colleagues were stunned.
“They were jumping and lifting, and we didn’t know what they were doing!” he laughed. “We were so isolated from the rest of the rugby world at times. When we went to play Cardiff, we thought we’d have a chance because we’d had a couple of decent wins earlier that season, but we hadn’t seen lifting in the lineout at that stage and we were well off.
Cardiff raced into an early lead, and by full-time, Ulster were on the wrong end of a 46-6 hammering, with six points from the boot of Mark McCall, the man who will attempt to plot the end of Leinster’s season tomorrow.
“Bill [Harbinson, the Ulster captain that day] had a real good go at us at half-time, and three or four minutes later they scored again. He had another go at us, then we said ‘we’ll meet back here in a few minutes,” Longwell laughs.
“We were just absolutely creamed...they were faster and stronger and pulling out things we didn’t even know possible.
“I played three or four games for Ulster and was totally outclassed, but that was the most difficult game I played.” Bordeaux visited Ulster for their only other pool game (Toulouse played just four games on their way to lifting the inaugural trophy), and it wasn’t much better, with the French side recording a 29-16 win.
“That’s how it was for the first few years...bar the win in 1999,” Longwell said. “Ever after that, we only won one or two games, so we had a shocking record in Europe.
“We just weren’t prepared for it, didn’t really have a fan base for it. On a Saturday afternoon people would be playing or at their own club, we’d — at best — rock up to a polite round of applause.”
The 26-caps Ireland lock started the 1999 final against Colomiers in Lansdowne Road and remembers another defeat — against Sunday’s opposition, Toulouse, set them on the road to victory. “Sometimes you need a bit of momentum and luck, and we got that in 1999,” he said.
“When I look back at the pool defeat, we lost to Toulouse 39-3...and we were kind of pleased. “Toulouse was the turning point, because the coach went through us — ‘how dare you be happy with such a loss’.
“That provoked a reaction. Then we had Toulouse at home in the quarter-finals, on a Friday night, and that was the start of building the fan base we have now.”
A quarter of a century later can Toulouse be another source of inspiration?
“Dan McFarland has come in and done a fantastic job with Ulster, he’s given them belief, and a vision, and the players believe they can go out and get a result,” Longwell argued.
“We were more so ‘trying not to get hammered’, but this lot have a different attitude. If the big players have big games, I think we can win.”
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