20 years ago: The day the course of European rugby history changed

The 2002 Heineken Cup final at a packed Millennium Stadium ticks into the final minute with Leicester clinging to a six-point lead but preparing desperately to defend a 5-metre Munster scrum in front of the posts...

Thu, 08 Dec, 2022 - 19:19

Peter Jackson

TWENTY years after Neil Back’s infamous sleight of hand did for Munster, Leicester Tigers are still looking for the trophy they won that summer’s afternoon in Cardiff.

While twenty years is a long stretch by any yardstick, Red Army veterans with long memories will take some convincing that it’s long enough in Leicester’s case for the Back-hander which sabotaged Munster’s final hope of the converted try they need to conquer Europe for the first time.

It’s almost as if the gods are still refusing to release England’s champion club from their purgatory. Their first Premiership title for far too long could be interpreted as a sign that they are about to grant the Tigers remission for good behaviour from their European punishment, to forgive and forget.

Back, whose shortage of stature as an openside flanker drove him to exceptional levels of competitive ferocity in a team full of them, has never begged forgiveness but would probably prefer to have the matter forgotten under The Official Secrets Act.

For the benefit of those too young to remember that far back, the scene can be pictured without stretching the imagination. The 2002 Heineken Cup final at a packed Millennium Stadium ticks into the final minute with the English holders clinging to a six-point lead but preparing desperately to defend a 5-metre Munster scrum in front of the Leicester posts.

Nobody is more desperate than Back. As Peter Stringer feeds the scrum, Back on the openside knocks the ball out of the scrum-half’s hands on a path towards the Leicester second row.

The fates conspire against Munster on three crucial counts.

1: The referee, Joel Jutge of France, is crouching on the opposite side of the scrum and therefore unable to see Back’s handiwork.

2: The touch judge on the other side sees nothing untoward as Leicester steal the ball and gleefully use the touchline to complete their escape.

3: The Television Match Official cannot intervene to ensure justice is seen to be done for the simple reason that 20 years ago he hadn’t been created. Had he been, Back would have been banged to rights and Munster invited to have a crack at 14 men.

The course of European history might well have taken a very different turn. Instead Leicester achieved the distinction of being the first to record consecutive European titles only for who else but Munster to knock them off their perch at the earliest available opportunity, in the Tigers’ den the following season.

Stringer scored one of Munster’s two tries at the Tigers’ den in the English East Midlands, poor compensation, perhaps, for the miscarriage of justice in the final the year before but good enough to knock Leicester out before they could get as far as the quarter-finals.

By then decorated Munster warriors like Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey would have agreed, privately if not publicly, with Back’s pragmatism: ‘’You have to do these things to win the Heineken Cup.’’

Longest waits to regain Europe’s top prize

25 yrs: Brive (Champions 1997).

24 yrs: Bath (Champions 1998).

23 yrs: Ulster (Champions 1999).

22 yrs: Northampton (Champions 2000).

20 yrs: Leicester Tigers (Last champions 2002).

15 yrs: Wasps (Last champions 2007).

14 yrs: Munster (Last champions 2008).

7 yrs: Toulon (Last champions 2015).

Since last appearing in the final

26 yrs: Cardiff (1996, lost to Toulouse).

24 yrs: Brive (1998, lost to Bath).