The 1997 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 1996–97 Heineken Cup, the second season of Europe's top club rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 competition. The match was played on 25 January 1997 at the Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

 in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

. The match was contested by Brive

CA Brive

Club Athlétique Brive Corrèze Limousin is a French rugby union team founded in 1910 and based in Brive-la-Gaillarde in the département of Corrèze of the Limousin région . They wear black and white and play in the Stade Amédée-Domenech .- History :The club was created on 15 March 1910 established on...

 of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Leicester

Leicester Tigers

Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...

 of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Brive won the match 28–9; they took the lead early on through a fourth-minute penalty from Christophe Lamaison

Christophe Lamaison

Christophe Lamaison is a former French rugby union footballer who represented France at international level, and Brive, Agen and Aviron Bayonnais at professional club level. He won 37 caps and is the current all-time leading points scorer for France, with 380 points...

, and Sébastien Viars

Sébastien Viars

Sébastien Viars is a former French rugby union footballer. He was nicknamed "The Compass". He played as a centre and as a wing.Viars was born at Aurillac...

 extended that lead with an unconverted try two minutes later. Leicester responded with three penalties from John Liley, but Brive finally made their pressure show with three second-half tries, one of which was converted, before Lamaison added a drop goal to seal a 19-point victory.

Match details