Leon's skill lit up the bearpit of Max's Stade

As a boy growing up in Coventry, Leon Lloyd had a dream: “To score the winning goal for the Sky Blues in the FA Cup final.’’ On a May day in 1987, shortly before he could reach the grand old age of ten, he watched someone else beat him to it by accident, Gary Mabbutt’s own goal in extra-time giving Coventry their famous win over Spurs. Leon’s vision of staging an action replay vanished for good a couple of years later when a change of school ‘forced’ him to play rugby.

- PETER JACKSON

And so he set off on a journey which would climax with an achievement every bit as unique as his hometown’s surprising success at the old Wembley. Scoring the winning try in a European Cup final for England’s biggest club was simply beyond his dreams.

There have been some momentous Heineken finals over the years, Bath’s almost miraculous one-point win over holders Brive in Bordeaux, Munster’s double epic in Cardiff and Leinster’s comeback against Northampton – but none to surpass the one in Paris 20 years ago:

Leicester 34 Stade Francais 30. There is every likelihood that nothing will surpass it for another 20 years, a scenario prompted by the spectre of last weekend’s Champions Cup showpiece at Twickenham degenerating into a muscle-bound wrestling match. Toulouse’s grim lack of ambition would have had neutrals the world over willing La Rochelle’s 14-men to pin them into last-minute submission.

In stark contrast, the 2001 final had it all, an Anglo-French joust crackling with so much tension that it almost kicked-off before the kick-off. The Tigers, seriously short of bonhomie at the best of times, felt mightily hacked off at having to confront the Parisians not just in Paris but beneath the Big Top of Max Guazzini’s rugby circus.

When the disadvantage seemed as though it would be too much, the English champions took to the high wire with a trapeze act which clean knocked the stuffing out of Stade and their flamboyant owner. Austin Healey’s famous break still required an acrobatic finish.