THIS YEAR marks a decade since the Heineken Cup was presented to a Scot for the first and only time in the brief history of the competition. Complete with a tartan scarf around his neck, courtesy of a grateful fan, Bath skipper and Scotland scrum-half Andy Nicol raised the famous trophy in front of a fast-disappearing crowd of 36,000 disgruntled Frenchmen in Bordeaux.

The vast majority of fans that day were supporting Brive, but notwithstanding a furiously hostile crowd, the Scottish captain and English coach steered the English giants to the very pinnacle of European rugby.

"It was a great moment," says Andy Robinson, the coach in question. "It was the end of a Bath team that had been together for many, many years and had achieved an awful lot in the game."

As well as Nicol, that same Bath squad also included Scotland's not very Scottish prop David Hilton, and breakaway Eric Peters. The day marked Robinson's crowning achievement in the club game and, even if he is unlikely to repeat those heroics with Edinburgh any time soon, the coach can't quite hide his excitement at the sight of another European Cup campaign looming on the horizon.

"I just love the Heineken Cup," he says with a broad grin etched on to his face. "I love its structure, the way it has two games and then a break before another two games just helps the tournament build and build. The different stadiums you visit, the cultures you experience, I love it."

In its formative years, the tournament did not generate quite the same excitement as it does now. The final was held in January, ahead of the Six Nations rather than after the Test window, and, as Robinson admits, Bath's big day against Brive was "a little lost" in a busy calendar.

The game is now evolving so fast that the Heineken Cup is threatening the Six Nations hegemony, but there are some aspects of the game which are timeless. Heineken winners tend to be cut from the same cloth. They share many of the same attributes and Robinson picks five must-have qualities for any team with their eyes set on Europe's biggest prize.

1. RESILIENCE

"Teams must be able to absorb pressure without giving away points. In that final against Brive, they had seven scrums on our line when they already had the lead so another score meant the match was over. Our scrummaging was phenomenal that day and it gave us the heart to go on and win the game.

"But more than just resilience, a side must have the ability to counter pressure with pressure. You have to keep playing the game. Leicester had us on the rack last year at Murrayfield, but Ross Rennie tackled Tom Varndell, the ball was turned over and we went the length to score. It would have been easy to just kick the ball into touch and let Leicester apply more pressure."

2. EXPERIENCE

"Teams need to have enough experience to know how to win away from home. Obviously you need to make your home ground a fortress first, but after that you really need to enjoy the experience of playing in front of a hostile crowd and winning on the road. That Bath team from 1998 had a back line of Nicol, Mike Catt, Phil de Glanville, Jerry Guscott, Ieuan Evans, Adedayo Adebayo and Jon Callard. Up front you had guys like "Ollie" Redman and Martin Haag. We couldn't go wrong with that lot."

3. A RELIABLE GOAL KICKER

"All European games need a goal kicker because they all come down to the wire, even if all the chances are in the opening 10 minutes. Because teams get different referees, there is a lot of latitude in interpreting the laws and there are usually a few penalties handed out in the opening minutes. In order to get some momentum, it's important to accumulate points and build a score."

4. TEAM SPIRIT

"The whole issue of team spirit is vital. You are playing on the biggest stage that the club will ever experience, and that in itself is a great opportunity. It's important to have the belief that you can go out there and win because, quite often, teams beat themselves before the game has started. Last year against Toulouse, we beat ourselves at Murrayfield because it was only in the last 15 minutes of the match that we truly believed that we could win."

5. LUCK

"Not many people remember the name Sebastien Carrat, but it is seared into my brain. He was the fastest man in either team in the 1998 final. He broke free and scorched off for our line when Ieuan Evans, that great try-scoring Welsh winger, tap-tackled Carrat at full-stretch. He probably got nothing more than his boot laces but still brought him down. If he hadn't made that tackle the Frenchman was under the posts."

There are a few interesting parallels to draw between Nicol's team of 1998 and the Edinburgh side that Mike Blair will lead on to the Murrayfield pitch against Leinster next Saturday afternoon, not least that the leaders of both sides are Scottish scrum-halfs who have also skippered their countries. Robinson agrees that the two players share the same mental strength of character that picks out the extraordinary player from the common flock, but laughs out loud at the thought of any similarities in style between the two No.9s. To borrow from boxing, Blair is Sugar Ray Leonard, Nicol more of a Roberto Duran figure, not always pretty but pretty effective in his own way.

In front of goal, Chris Paterson doesn't miss much, just as Jon Callard kicked five from five in that final a decade ago, and some of this Edinburgh side have grown up together; eight players from the 2004 quarter-final against Toulouse are still in harness. However, that is where the comparison ends because, after the upheaval of Bob Carruthers' brief reign, the club is in the second year of re-building. Instead of Edinburgh, Robinson picks their first-up opponents as a better comparison with the team that he took to the title ten years ago.

"The Edinburgh side has to grow and grow up," says their coach. "That Bath side was very experienced. The two are not comparable because it was the last chance for that Bath team. Look at Leinster this year. They have come so close in the past, they have grown together, they have made a few signings and this season is probably the best chance that they have to win the tournament and they are our first game.

"We mustn't have any fears about playing Leinster but they are a quality side. I've been impressed with them and the way they play the game."

Especially when watching the Dublin club run up 52 points against Edinburgh in the Magners League just a few short weeks ago? "Yes, Leinster scored 52 points against us not long ago," says Robinson, "but the boys will be reminded of that fact over the next week."