Thirty years of Champions Cup has given us the beastly, beautiful and bizarre

Bloodgate, the ‘Hand of Back’ and a drop goal off ‘someone’s arse’ are among the tournament’s delightful eccentricities - and Munster’s contribution to European history is also impossible to overlook

MIRACLE MEN: Munster's John Kelly celebrates scoring his side's fourth try in the last minute of the 2003 Heineken European Cup pool win over Gloucester. The game is commonly referred to as the 'Miracle Match'. Pic: Des Barry, Irish Examiner 

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 October 31, 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.