Man Behind The Match: Jon Callard And The 1998 Heineken Cup Final

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Bath were not given much of a chance of becoming the first British and Irish side to win the Heineken Cup. Their fate in the 1998 final was to face reigning champions Brive at the supposedly neutral Stade Lescure in Bordeaux on an oppressive day in the south of France. It wasn’t just the nature of the opposition, venue and partisan crowd not in their favour; the 1997/98 season had been, to say the least, turbulent on the banks of the River Avon. A club record defeat by Saracens, Andy Robinson (one of the club’s all-time greats who had taken over the coaching job) jeered at The Rec, a ‘fly on the wall’ TV documentary which saw a club struggling to come to terms with the demands of professionalism wash its dirty washing in the public glare and there was the small matter of the ear-biting incident during a cup-tie against London Scottish. Jack Rowell’s departure to England in 1995 and the uncertainty created by turning the sport into a professional pursuit a year later had transformed the most stable elite club in the land into one built on shifting sands. Coaches and players came and went as the blueprint for success at The Rec appeared to be ripped up. The multiple distractions did not augur well for Bath’s bid to break the French monopoly on what was quickly becoming Europe’s most sought after club rugby prize. Against all this Bath was a team with an iron core of individuals who gained strength from a supreme record in cup finals. Up until that point Bath had won 10 out of 10. Full-back Jon Callard had been at the club for almost a decade and had taken over the mantle from the retired Jon Webb. Then a new boy appeared on the block in the shape of 21-year-old Matt Perry, who not only claimed Callard’s position as first choice at club level but had also made a sensational Test debut for England two months before.

The 32-year-old Callard, who would be Bath’s matchwinner on this day of days, may not have even played but for a below-par kicking display by Mike Catt against Richmond the week before which persuaded Robinson to pick his old team-mate at 15 primarily, it appeared, for his goal-kicking. It proved to be the shrewdest of big calls as Callard stroked over seven goals in a haul of all 19 points amid an incessant din made by 30,000 Brive fans. “The atmosphere was fantastic, electrifying,” recalls Mark Regan, Bath’s hooker that day. “Brive were the champions, the team to beat, and we were the underdogs – it was like a bear pit on a very warm day.” Centre Phil de Glanville agrees: “Yes, it was a beautiful day, a hot day. I remember that it was a really long tunnel – it must have been half-a-mile long – and when we got out on to the pitch for the warm-up the feeling of such overwhelming support for the French. When I looked across at the Brive players they seemed to have their noses in the air, they thought they were going to walk it and came across as being arrogant. It really motivated us.” The road to Bordeaux had been a tortuous one for both sides; 1997/98 was the first season of home and away matches in the pool stage. Bath and Brive were drawn in the same section alongside Pontypridd. Robinson’s men had beaten the European champions at The Rec 27-25, in wake of the infamous Brive-Pontypridd bar room brawl after their clash in France, but lost 12-29 in Brive. This would be the decider in more ways than one. It was a momentous time for de Glanville, who had not trained all week due to his wife being on the brink of going into labour. “I flew out late to France as our first son was born on the Thursday. I was in a weird mental state, there was so much going on,” he says. The match began amid a tumult of noise with the 6,000 or so Bath fans in the gathering of 36,500 desperately trying, and mostly failing, to make themselves heard over the all-encompassing noise sweeping from across the stands from the Brive supporters. To the surprise of most observers Brive, whose brilliant backs had torn Leicester apart in the 1997 final in Cardiff, tried to outmuscle Bath. Brive coach Laurent Seigne, the former France prop, had decided that he wanted to prove a point that his side could win both ways. “We expected them to go wide but they tried to outmuscle us up front and it was easier for us to defend,” says de Glanville. Christophe Lamaison, who would go on to kick France towards the 1998 Five Nations Grand Slam, gave Brive an early 9-0 lead with three penalties but, after a nervy-looking miss, Callard responded with two of his own as the half degenerated into an arm-wrestle. It wasn’t pretty but was certainly compelling. Lamaison had the final word in the first 40 with his fifth three-pointer to give his side a 15-6 advantage at the break. The phoney war had been won by Brive but the crux of the match would come 10 minutes into the second half, as Bath had to weather a gigantic barrage of pressure involving seven successive five-metre scrums. “We were up against it, Brive were formidable, but Victor Ubogu, Hilts (Dave Hilton) and myself held it together,” says Regan. “They tried to push us over again and again but we held our positions and eventually we got a penalty. We got through somehow; we were international rugby players and would never give up.

Bath's Ieaun Evans trying to break through — Bath’s Ieaun Evans trying to break through

“I think they under-estimated us, they tried to crush us up front and when Plan A didn’t work they had no Plan B. They tried to outmuscle us but we had some really, really dogged players in that team. Look at the back-row – Richard Webster, Dan Lyle and Nathan Thomas – they all had different attributes. And the backline? Well, it was just class.” Tenacity in spades but Seigne was not impressed, displaying his anger on the touchline and later complaining that referee Jim Fleming should have awarded a penalty try. The vast majority of the crowd howled its disapproval as Bath cleared their lines. “That was the point; if they had scored then they would probably have won the game,” de Glanville admits. “The front five really earned their corn. It was huge, huge pressure. I remember our skipper Andy Nicol with his constant chatter and the front-row union getting up from each scrum and getting ready for the next one.” Moments like those bring a team closer together and provide the impetus for a push for victory. But could Bath really emerge victorious from a Bordeaux torture chamber? Belief coursed through the veins just before the hour when they conjured a rare expansive move. From a scrum in their own 22, No.8 Lyle picked up and set off on a rampaging run. Nicol was there in support and when Jeremy Guscott received the ball an iconic moment, similar to his drop-goal for the Lions in Durban six months before, appeared likely … only no, Guscott transferred the ball to Callard for a glory run to the line. “I still can’t believe he passed the ball to JC for the try – that was the biggest shock of the all game for me!” jokes Regan. “Lyle picked up and ran and then it was the first time I had seen Jerry pass the ball when the try-line was beckoning!” adds de Glanville, Guscott’s long-time centre partner. Callard converted and Bath were within two points. Alain Penaud, playing at full-back, eased Brive five ahead with a well-struck drop-goal from 40 metres out, only for the French to be penalised two minutes later and give Callard a shot at bringing it back to 16-18. It was never in doubt. “When you get to a final you need to take every chance you can get and JC’s kicking was fantastic,” says de Glanville. “He was in the zone, he went through his routines. Once he knew it was a penalty he just closed out, you couldn’t talk to him about it.” While Callard was gaining in confidence kick-by-kick Lamaison was showing signs of vulnerability. With five minutes to go he had the chance to put Brive on the brink of victory… he missed. Into added time on Fleming’s watch (the 80-minute clock was yet to come into play) and the tension became unbearable. One key decision by the Scottish official could settle it, and it did. Bath wing Adedayo Adebayo was adjudged to have been taken out by Yvan Manhes while chasing a kick. Brive complained bitterly that the collision was accidental. Accompanied by a wailing of whistles and boos Callard kept his cool, trotted up and cleanly struck the ball through the uprights. Bath for the first (and only) time in the match were in the lead. Lamaison had the chance to grab victory with a penalty attempt that he would normally slot in his sleep but the pressure told and there was still more drama to come. Nicol dropped the ball close to his side’s posts. It was scrum time again. “Lamaison had that penalty, then there was a five-metre scrum and how Lisandro Arbizu missed that drop-goal I don’t know. That was the easier kick of the two,” the relief still evident in de Glanville’s voice after all those years thinking about the ball sailing a metre wide.

Mark Regan, Ieuan Evans and Mike Catt with the trophy

Bath flanker Richard Webster touched the ball down to set in train wild celebrations which included a team sprint around the pitch to get to their supporters huddled together in a corner of Stade Lescure. “The Bath supporters were all in one place with so many Bath flags and made an incredible noise – I still remember that. If you ask any of them who were there I’m sure they would say it was their best weekend following Bath.” Regan adds: “It was our day. In those 80 minutes we maximised our opportunities. You make your own luck and we capitalised on other people’s mistakes. It was our time. “We set winning the Heineken Cup as our goal, the draw went our way with the quarter-final and semi-final at Bath and so we set out our stall to win it. The final was our only away game in the knockout stages and we knew we could win it.” The triumph was celebrated to the full across the Garonne. Now England had broken its duck could the fledgling Premiership be the nursery for serial European champions? The boycott the following season put that plan into the pits but Northampton, Leicester and Wasps would follow Bath on to the Heineken Cup roll of honour in quick succession. The Bath of old would have been in the vanguard of this Anglo advance but Bordeaux was not built upon. Callard himself had a spell as head coach that was pretty underwhelming … Bath only just avoided the drop in 2002/03. No matter, Callard will always be fondly remembered in the city as the man who delivered the biggest prize, with a little help from his friends. “We had about six Lions in that side and we were all very proud people,” states Regan. “JC scored all the 19 points, he had a tremendous talent with the boot, was strong under the high ball and got his kicks. He did his job, but the team put him in the position. My job was the scrummaging and lineouts and to get into the Brive faces. We all did our jobs, it was a tremendous effort. “I’m a Heineken Cup winner and still proud of it. It’s right up there in terms of my career. When you see all the pictures from that day you can see we were all extremely happy.”