It was a grey day in Dublin, a blank canvas awaiting a few vivid splashes of colour. And what a vision duly unfolded. This was as sensationally good a finale as the tournament has seen and, by the end, it was all yellow. For the second year in succession La Rochelle hoisted the Champions Cup, while Leinster’s drive for a record-equalling fifth title was denied.
Great games of rugby are not always reserved for the greatest of stages but this one had pretty much everything. Expectations had been high but they were comfortably exceeded in the first 40 minutes alone. At 17-0 down inside the first dozen minutes, there seemed only one winner. Instead La Rochelle engineered one of the all-time great comebacks, clinched with a 72nd-minute close-range try from their vast replacement prop Georges-Henri Colombe.
