“My abiding memory of that pre-match was hilarious,” recalls the 49-year-old former Scotland scrum-half.

“There was a long walk to the pitch, as there was a massive tunnel. It was literally about 100 yards long - it was huge.

“There had been trouble early on in the competition with Brive and Pontypridd, and as we had played against them [Brive] twice in the group stage, home and away, I think they [the officials] thought things could really kick off in that tunnel.

“I was standing around about to lead Bath on and Philippe Carbonneau, their captain and scrum-half, was doing the same.

“There were two massive forward packs and in between there was a line of French stewards wearing their fluorescent jackets. They were all about 5ft 10in and so if anything had kicked off, they would have been powerless to stop it!

“It was one of those moments that was really strange, but it just made me relax a little bit more. Thankfully, nothing did happen.”

Nicol duly went on to become the first British player to lift the trophy as Bath wrote their name into the history books as the first English winners with 19 points from full-back Jon Callard.

Listen to the full Champions Rugby Show with Andy by clicking HERE or by using Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

You can watch the 1998 Heineken Cup final between Bath and Brive on the Heineken Champions Cup Rewind on Saturday from 17:00 (UK and Irish time) with kick-off at 17:45. The match can be found on ChampionsCupRugby.com and will be shown on site and our various social media feeds.

Bath Rugby’s 19-18 win over Brive in the 1998 Heineken Cup decider is one of only three finals where a single point has divided the sides at the end – but Bath skipper Andy Nicol revealed on the Champions Rugby Show that there was some unintentional light relief before the drama unfolded.