2003-04 was a campaign full of epic highs for Dallaglio - starting with England’s World Cup final success over Australia and culminating in an unforgettable 27-20 Twickenham victory against mighty Toulouse to lift the biggest prize in European club rugby. And along the way came that famous 37-32 semi-final win over Munster at a packed and raucous Lansdowne Road in Dublin.

The World Cup victory came so early in the domestic season for Dallaglio and his England team-mates, it left them with a big challenge to either match or increase those levels for the following months.

Speaking to the Champions Rugby Show, he said: “First of all it was an amazing season, which for some of us started by winning the World Cup at the beginning of the season. So when you start a season by winning the World Cup, you think to yourself ‘how can it get any better after that?’.

“I remember coming home and Warren Gatland, who was our coach of Wasps at the time, and Shaun Edwards - they embraced England’s success and they were very proud to have made significant contributions to that success. They gave us a week off and then said ‘you need to sober up and we need to get you back training again.’

“We played Perpignan in a group game and we won that and our journey through that particular Heineken Cup was extraordinary.

“We had to go away to Perpignan in our final pool match - which was in a real bearpit of an atmosphere with 18,500 of their fans - and we weren’t sure who we were gonna draw in the quarter-final. We had to win the game, we ended up winning it quite comfortably, got a standing ovation as we left the field in Perpignan.

“We drew Gloucester in the quarter-finals, which was a home quarter-final – again, statistically such an important factor in the Heineken Champions Cup - we dispatched Gloucester relatively easily in the quarter-final and set up what was a very famous fixture now against Munster.”

The game against Munster back in April 2004 - which will be our latest Heineken Champions Cup Rewind this Saturday afternoon (presented by Keith Wood) - was an unforgettable experience for Dallaglio and his team-mates. And it culminated in an astonishing comeback in the dying minutes.

“To go away in a Heineken Cup semi-final is a tough ask. To go away to Ireland to play in their national stadium against a provincial side like Munster was incredible, and as I said, goes down as one of those great historical games,” said Dallaglio.

“The significance of it wasn’t lost on myself and the squad - particularly with Warren Gatland having coached Ireland and having felt that he’d perhaps left Ireland under somewhat of a slightly controversial cloud.

“So there was a lot resting on it personally, there was a great respect for Munster, they were a side that was coming of their age in terms of the Champions Cup and had suffered in glorious defeats at the hands of other opponents.”

Apart from the fact Munster had a seriously strong team which was fast growing in European stature, the size of the task for Dallaglio and his team-mates was multiplied by their off-the-field opposition.

He explained: “It was an extraordinary build-up to the game - we had about 200 travelling fans and I think they had about 55,000, all wearing red shirts. I’ve never in my life to this day walked out into a stadium where the atmosphere has been as red-hot as that day. Apart from the fact the weather was blistering anyway, literally I walked out with the team and there was 55,000 red shirts quite simply. It was us against the entirely Munster nation really, and we were significantly pumped up.

“It was a classic game and it goes down as a classic - not because of the result - but because of the attitude both sides had to playing. Semi-finals aren’t supposed to be necessarily games that people remember. They can be quite scrappy, quite nervy affairs with such a prize like the European Cup final at stake.

“From minute one, both teams went at it. We had a real positive attitude to go and play, and how often do you get a semi-final where the lead changes hands, I don’t know, half a dozen times at least? Where there were four yellow cards, two on both sides. There were tries on both sides, the drama, every single moment was resting on it.

“With 10 minutes to go we were staring down the barrel - I think we were about 12 points down. But we found it within ourselves to level the game and then Trevor Leota got the crucial try at the end. Fantastic atmosphere and for that reason, I remember the graciousness of the Munster fans. They must have been heartbroken after the game, another failure at the penultimate hurdle, and yet they were so gracious.

“It was one of those games that you had to applaud both sides because when the music stopped right at the end, Wasps were lucky enough to be ahead.”

While in the immediate aftermath of that game Dallaglio admitted it would be wrong for anybody to even think about the final yet, Wasps had another job to do – against mighty Toulouse in the final at Twickenham.

“If you could pick one opponent to play in your first European Cup final, no disrespect I mean nowadays it might be a Leinster or a Saracens, but certainly in those days it was definitely Toulouse. They were the aristocrats of French rugby, they were the Galacticos, they always had the stars.

“For us it was a dream final, to play Toulouse, and to play Toulouse at Twickenham, a stadium we were really starting to get to grips with, obviously it was a stadium I knew very well but Wasps had been there a number of times as well.

“When you’ve had these experiences of the Heineken Cup, and you’ve been to Perpignan and you’ve come away with an emphatic win, and you’ve been to Lansdowne Road and played Munster and you’ve come away, I think it gave us the belief that it doesn’t matter where we are or who we’re gonna play, we’ve got the ability to win this competition.

“We were also English champions at the time, we’d won the Parker Pen as it was known Challenge Cup the year before, so we’d won a European final albeit against Bath. We were English champions and we’d done that emphatically at Twickenham so less than 12 months before we’d won our first Premiership play-off title against Gloucester.

“We went into the game with huge respect for Toulouse obviously because of their pedigree. But also in the knowledge that their record was amazing in France but outside of France - particularly in England - their record in England was not good. I think they’d won two games out of about 15 or 16. So I think we went in there with a lot of confidence and a real belief - and I think that’s the key – that we could win the game.”

When the build-up finished and the game finally got under way, Wasps knew they were in a fearsome battle against a formidable opponent.

“They were a worthy side. We were chasing shadows in the first half, to be clear, the better team were Toulouse by some distance, but the better team on the scoreboard were Wasps. I think we were very clinical - we'd only been in their half a couple of times, but we’d made sure that we’d come away with points.

“We went down the tunnel at half time and we sat and no-one said a word for about three minutes in the changing rooms - no-one could because they were busy breathing! We knew were up against a very worthy opponent.

“We then got the first try of the second half - that wonderful length-of-the-field effort by Mark van Gisbergen - so make no doubt we were clinical when we had to. But as they started to make the changes from their bench - which was as good as anyone’s starting XV, we started to creak a little bit defensively and their momentum built throughout the game with Elissalde playing at number 9.”

The rest as they say is now history - as with the scores level in the dying minutes Rob Howley chased down a long kick, Clement Poitrenaud inexplicably allowed him to collect it and the Welshman touched down for the clinching try.

Dallaglio recounts that seismic moment, telling us: “Then the scores were level and yet again we still had that to dig deep and scramble our defence. The moment of the game and probably one of the moments of European Cup history now and folklore was the Rob Howley kick.

“It was a shot to nothing, we were conscious with the scores level, just to try and keep them pinned down in their own half and we might get a penalty, or an opportunity to get a drop goal or something. And obviously Rob chased that lost cause and to this day I don’t know what Poitrenaud was thinking.

“At the time your heart went out to him, but actually he was a magnificent player who went on to have the most stellar career. So from a Wasps fan’s point of view, you wouldn’t begrudge our moment in the sun. For Rob Howley to chase that lost cause and to come out with a score that was so dramatic.”

Looking back now, some 16 years on from that triumph, Dallaglio admits that you need a little luck as well as great rugby and heart to lift the Heineken Cup.

“The fates and the gods were shining on Wasps that season - we had a decision in Lansdowne Road with Trevor Leota’s try that could easily have been a 50-50 call and gone the other way, and a similar decision that was undoubtedly a try.

“Sometimes your name is written on the trophy and it certainly felt with that moment of magic from Howley and a moment of horror I suppose from poor old Poitrenaud that our name was definitely on the trophy.”

As Lawrence Dallaglio reflected on Wasps’ incredible Heineken Cup success of 2004, he admitted “it certainly felt like our name was on the trophy”.