It had been 37 years, 5 months and 16 days since Bristol Bears had last won a major trophy, but the wait ended with victory over Toulon in the Challenge Cup final.
In more recent history, three years ago this weekend Bristol, with soon to be Welsh international Callum Sheedy starting at fly-half, were losing 22-33 at home to Doncaster Knights in the British and Irish Cup, a couple months into the new season in England's second tier - the poorly named Championship.
But after just two seasons back in the big leagues, Pat Lam’s side have secured a trophy for the people of Bristol to deliver on the promises he made his day in the job back in 2017.
The Bears, who were coming off the back of the huge disappointment of last weekend's heavy 47-24 defeat against Wasps in the Premiership semi-final, scored tries through Harry Randall and Max Malins and should have scored at least a couple more as Harry Thacker dropped the ball over the line while Joe Joyce at a try scrubbed of for a forward pass.
As a result of the missed chances Toulon led the game going into the break, but those two tries, plus 22 points off the boot of Sheedy who didn't miss all night, allowed Siale Piutau and Jordan Crane to lift the Challenge Cup aloft.
Bristol got off to a start they could only have imagined in their wildest dreams when Harry Randall crossed to score the game's opening try after just fifteen seconds - a record for any European final.
Semi Radradra caught the kick-off before linking up well with Alapati Leiua to stride up the field before feeding Randall who ran in.
Sheedy added the conversion and extended his side's lead with a penalty to put the Bears 10-0 up, just three minutes into the game.
Toulon, backed by 1,000 of their fans, responded after a mistake and a slip in the Bears back line allowed Duncan Paia’aua to capitalise before passing to former Worcester man Bryce Heem who scored in the corner.
Harry Thacker thought he had extended the Bears lead as he crashed over the line from the back of an exceptionally executed driving maul, but the TMO spotted a knock-on in the grounding and the try was disallowed.
Louis Carbonel knocked over a penalty for Toulon to level the scores, but the Bears once again thought they had added a second try.
This time it was Joe Joyce who crossed the try-line after some free-flowing play from Bristol which involved Leiua, Morahan and Harry Randall, but Semi Radradra’s final pass to Joyce was deemed forward and the try was chalked off .
Before the break Toulon added two penalties through Carbonel to put the French side 16-10 ahead at half-time.
Bristol started the second-half strongly, but the Toulon defence held strong and forced the Bears in to playing a high number of phases.
Sheedy and Carbonel exchanged a penalty each, keeping the French side's lead at six points.
The Bears began to control the final, stepping up the intensity and tempo of their game, Sheedy added two more penalties and they were eventually rewarded with the second try of the game.
Alapati Leiua’s pass landed perfectly in the hands of Max Malins and the Saracens loanee used his pace and skill to jink his way past the Toulon defence to cross for the Bears.
Toulon pushed the Bears' defensive line hard, but a vital strip of the ball from Harry Thacker and a scrum penalty won by Jake Woolmore relieved the pressure.
Toulon continued to hassle the Bears, but were penalised twice further and Callum Sheedy added two more penalties to secure the Challenge Cup for the Bristol Bears.
Toulon: 15. Gervais Cordin; 14. Bryce Heem, 13. Isaiah Toeava, 12. Duncan Paia’aua, 11. Gabin Villiere; 10. Louis Carbonel, 9. Baptiste Serin; 1. Jean Baptiste Gros, 2. Anthony Etrillard (C), 3. Beka Gigashvili, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 5. Romain Taofifenua, 6. Charles Ollivon, 7. Raphael Lakafia, 8. Sergio Parisse.
Replacements: 16. Bastien Soury, 17. Florian Fresia, 18. Emerick Setiano, 19. Brian Alainu’uese, 20. Swan Rebbadj, 21. Julien Ory, 22. Tane Takalua, 23. Masivesi Dakuwaqa.
Bristol Bears : 15. Max Malins; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Siale Piutau (C), 11. Alapati Leiua, 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Joe Joyce, 6. Chris Vui, 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Ben Earl.
Replacements: 16. George Kloska, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. John Afoa, 19. Ed Holmes, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Tom Kessell, 22. Piers O’Conor, 23. Niyi Adeolokun.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant Referees : Frank Murphy and George Clancy (Ireland)
Attendance: 1,000
