US Edition Stade Francais 30 Leicester 34
So Leicester are champions. In a season when they have swept all before them domestically, grabbing both the Zurich Premiership and championship, they saved the best till last.
Leicester are now officially the best club side in Europe and arguably a match for anyone on the world stage. But boy was it hard. They were up against a French side strong in the scrummage, tackle area and line-outs, and hell-bent on achieving a dream of their own. But Leicester prevailed and can now take their place alongside Bath and Northampton in an exclusive club as winners of the Heineken Cup.
The scenes at the end were heart-warming. As referee David McHugh blew his whistle to signal the end of a tumultuous and occasionally brutal contest, the entire Leicester bench ran into the sunshine and on to the pitch to embrace their colleagues.
Even the old maestro Dean Richards managed to galvanise a shambling gait into some sort of a run as he went to congratulate his players. Coach John Wells and chief executive Peter Wheeler also arrived on the scene and it was a fitting end to a wonderful season, because Leicester proved yet again that they are a club who stand or fall by their team effort.
The final act was a mile away from the emotions which greeted the entry of the two sides at the start of the contest. The Parc des Princes was at its gladiatorial best, the noise deafening and incessant. Whoever persuaded the French Federation to move their spiritual home from the Parc to Stade de France must wish they could take that decision again because there is nothing quite like it in world rugby. And for Leicester to triumph in this bear pit was quite extraordinary.
But Stade began with glowering intent. They walked on to the pitch hands on hips and chests out, and there were extraordinary scenes before a ball was kicked as the entire Leicester team went to meet them on the centre spot to show they were not to be cowed.
In many ways it was reminiscent of the start of the England versus All Blacks match at Old Trafford, when Richard Cockerill and Norm Hewitt went head-to-head. In Paris yesterday referee McHugh had to diffuse the tension, separating the sides as they came within three metres of a massive brawl.
But if anyone thought that Stade were posturing, they had only to examine the evidence of the first 40 minutes to realise that they meant business. They dominated the first half and went in at half-time 15-9 ahead courtesy of five penalties by their stand-off Diego Dominguez. Yet that was not the whole story. Stade were also in charge in all the important areas of the game: powerful in the scrum, athletic at the line-out through David Aurdrou and menacing in the tackle through the efforts on a very competitive back row led superbly by Christophe Juillet.
Leicester were simply overwhelmed at times and the memory flashed back to a Heineken Cup final in Cardiff in 1997 when they were too confident by half against Brive. This time their problem was not a surfeit of confidence, but showing too much respect. Incredibly, Leicester decided to play the long game, attempting to pin Stade into their own half with a series of long and aimless kicks. It was totally out of character for a Leicester side who have dominated English rugby this season and an aberration which, if it had continued, would have cost them the match.
Thankfully, good sense resurfaced in the Leicester changing room during the interval and they came out to play the rugby we all knew they had in them. Leon Lloyd scored twice and Neil Back also got over the line, while Dominguez and Stade could only manage a further 15 points from his boot. Lloyd's first try came 50 seconds into the second period after Pat Howard had teased the defence with a hanging kick, and his second occurred in the final minute of normal time after Austin Healey had held the defence with a searing break before firing a pass to the winger.
Those are the bare details of the scores but they do not do justice to the tension, which increased as the game neared its climax. At no point did either team get more than seven points ahead of their rivals and Stade were in the lead in the 77th minute after Dominguez had slotted a sweetly-taken drop goal. Dominguez had earlier kicked two penalties from 52 and 53 metres respectively to keep his team in the hunt. It was that kind of game: compulsive, heart-stopping, thoroughly entertaining.
Brutal too. Martin Johnson, Leicester's enigmatic and valiant captain was sent to the sin-bin for punching Juillet. It was a harsh call on Johnson as earlier in the match he had been the victim of a cheap shot by Stade's flanker, Richard Pool-Jones, as he was getting up off the floor following a ruck. But Johnson is nothing if not wily. When Back went over to score Leicester's second try to bring them within two points of Stade, Juillet complained vociferously that Johnson had held him illegally at the conclusive maul.
So the longest season in the history of English rugby comes to a close. It has been memorable for so many reasons, not least the way in which England and Leicester have set out their stalls. The days of English rugby being a refuge for broken-nosed, cauliflowered-eared forwards are over. The game is more fluid, more athletic and more entertaining to watch and the effectiveness of the approach has been shown by the outstanding achievements posted by Leicester and England.
It was a great rugby occasion in Paris yesterday, a showpiece which justified the sometimes outrageous claims the sport makes for itself. Now the challenge is for the Lions to move that on to a grander scale in the southern hemisphere.