Bath 19 v 18 Brive (Stade Lescure, 36,500)
Around 350,000 spectators had gone through the turnstiles for earlier matches that season but by 1997/8 that had risen to almost half a million with the introduction of teams meeting on a home and away basis in the Pool rounds.
The five Pools of four guaranteed each team a minimum of six games and the three quarter-final play-off matches all added up to a bumper 70-match tournament, Bath and Brive meeting three times in all.
The decisive winner-takes-all third encounter was in the final at Stade Lescure in Bordeaux and the majority of the capacity 36,500 crowd were left stunned when cup holders Brive were pipped by a point by the Bath battlers in a contest of raw tension.
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