Celtic LeagueThe inaugural season of the Celtic League was run in the 2001-2002 season as the Leicester Tigers won their second successive Heineken Cup. The Tigers therefore became the first European winners to beat a league title holder in the same season. Wasps, under current Welsh coach Warren Gatland, became the first club to beat reigning champions in Europe, vanquishing Toulouse in the 2004 final. Indeed, that victory stopped the French club from becoming the first to claim three European crowns in a row as Toulouse won again in 2005. But it was Leinster’s second triumph in 2011, the first European crown under current Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, that perhaps offers the most persuasive argument as to the most impressive list of scalps on the way to winning a European title.

Source: The Irish Times April 26, 2018 06:00 UTC