Champions Cup: Five previous Anglo-French finals

Saturday's Champions Cup decider in Lyon will be the sixth time the final has been contested between English and French teams.

England currently lead the way with three victories and two of those came on French soil, Bath in 1998 and Leicester in 2001.

Saracens were beaten in the last Anglo-French final in 2014 when Toulon overpowered them in Cardiff. On Saturday they face Racing 92, the team that ended Toulon's three-year reign as champions of Europe.

Ahead of this eagerly-awaited contest, let's look back at the five previous finals between English and French teams.

1997: Brive 28-9 Leicester

Leicester were outscored by four tries to nil as Brive blew them away in the closing stages at Cardiff Arms Park.

The French side raced into an 8-0 lead after only five minutes through a Christophe Lamaison penalty and Sebastien Viars try, but two first-half penalties from John Liley kept Leicester in contention.

Liley added another penalty to give the Tigers the lead on 54 minutes but Brive then shifted up a gear and the pressure finally told.

Leicester lost Dean Richards to injury and tries from Brive wings Gerald Fabre and Sebastien Carrat (2) ensured back-to-back victories for French teams in the fledgling tournament.

1998: Bath 19-18 Brive

Bath became the first non-French side to win the European Cup when they overturned a 15-6 half-time deficit against the defending champions in Bordeaux.

The West Country team produced a stunning final quarter which was kick-started by Jeremy Guscott sending John Callard over for the game's only try.

Full-back Callard scored all of Bath's points and he kicked an injury-time penalty to give his side the lead for the first time after the touch judge spotted a late tackle on Adedayo Adebayo by Brive lock Yvan Manhes.

There was further late drama, with Brive awarded an 82nd-minute penalty inside Christophe Lamaison's range after Bath collapsed a maul, but he was unable to add to his 15 first-half points.

Lisandro Arbizu also saw a drop-goal attempt drift narrowly wide as Bath held on for the narrowest of victories.

2001: Leicester 34-30 Stade Francais

Leon Lloyd's 80th-minute try snatched a thrilling victory for Leicester as they stunned Stade at the Parc des Princes to complete a Premiership and European double.

Stade looked on course for victory in their home city thanks to an incredible 30-points tally from the boot of Diego Dominguez, but the Tigers scored three second-half tries to deny the French team.

Leicester trailed 15-9 at the interval but Lloyd scored the game's opening try just 50 seconds after the restart.

Neil Back also crossed the whitewash while Dominguez kept his side in contention with two 50-metre penalties.

Leicester survived the sin-binning of skipper Martin Johnson for punching but they fell behind with three minutes remaining when Italy fly-half Dominguez slotted a drop goal.

However, the Tigers would have the final say as Lloyd crossed in the right corner following a superb break by man of the match Austin Healy, and they withstood a late barrage to clinch the first of back-to-back European Cups.

2004: Wasps 27-20 Toulouse

Clement Poitrenaud called time on a fantastic career last week but he's probably still having nightmares about the final minute of the 2004 decider at Twickenham.

Wasps led a thrilling contest for large spells but their French opponents drew level with just three minutes remaining as replacement Jean-Baptiste Elissalde slotted his third unanswered penalty.

Both teams were guilty of some abject kicking during a tense finish and a poor drop out from Frederic Michalak bounced into Rob Howley's arms.

The Wales scrum-half booted the ball up the wing and gave chase but Poitrenaud was well positioned to deal with the danger.

However, the Toulouse full-back tried to let the ball go dead, and as he waited for it to bounce into the in-goal area, Howley beat him to the punch and touched the ball down to snatch the most dramatic of victories.

"The day prior to that I was kicking with Shaun Edwards and he told me to be prepared for a huge kicking game, and to never kick and hope," said Howley.

"Well the kick and hope actually won us the cup final. He told me afterwards, 'never listen to me again!'"

2014: Toulon 23-6 Saracens

Jonny Wilkinson's final game on British soil was a memorable one as Toulon comfortably retained the European Cup with a crushing victory over Saracens at the Millennium Stadium.

The World Cup winner kicked 13 points as tries in either half from Matt Giteau and Juan Smith ensured the French heavyweights became only the third team to successfully defend their crown.

Having hammered Clermont in the semi-finals, Saracens opened the scoring with an Owen Farrell penalty, but they were punished after failing to capitalise on the sin-binning of Juan Fernandez Lobbe.

Instead, Toulon scored the opening try while down to 14 men, Wallabies centre Giteau crossing on the half-hour, and a drop goal from Wilkinson gave them a 10-3 lead at the interval.

Saracens began the second half like they did the first as Farrell slotted another penalty, but that was cancelled out by Wilkinson and Toulon struck a decisive blow on the hour.

Mathieu Bastareaud broke from inside his own half and Smith and Lobbe combined to send the Springbok over in the corner.

Wilkinson landed the conversion to finish with a 100 per cent record off the tee.