Leeds Tykes at Twickenham: Mark 'Ronnie' Regan remembers the day 20 years ago when the lowly club shocked rugby

Such as how Leeds Tykes celebrated their finest moment 20 years ago this week, when they shocked heavy favourites Bath in the Powergen Cup final at Twickenham.

“What goes on on that bus stays on that bus,” booms Regan in his unmistakable West Country accent.

“Moments like that are what you fight for, that’s what you earn the right for, to be on that winning bus with the trophy.”

Two decades on what did happen on the bus was retold over and over again as the players of Leeds Tykes’, circa April 16, 2005, people like Stuart Hooper and Tom Biggs, gathered at Headingley for an anniversary lunch.

“It finished a bit earlier than I was hoping,” laughs Regan. “No one went into town afterwards. We’re getting too old for that now, I s’pose.”

Regan’s connection with Leeds is not one of a Yorkshire boy who rose through the ranks of his hometown club, but he was no less of a fan favourite because of it.

He came to Leeds in the summer of 2002 when they were a club on the rise, hoping to establish themselves in the Premiership elite.

“The kids cried all the way up to Leeds because they didn’t want to leave Bristol,” remembers Regan, a World Cup winner a year later, “and then when we left Leeds they cried all the way back down to Bristol.

“So we thoroughly enjoyed their time up there. It was a huge culture change for me. I had to buy into the culture, buy into their ethos, their mentality.

“Every player embraced the Leeds Tykes culture, and that goes all the way back to the family being looked after, getting the kids in good schools, making sure my wife was happy. That makes me happy and able to go and play.

“I had to become a fan’s favourite within a couple of games. Fans pay their money to watch the games and if they see you putting 100 per cent in they don’t mind paying their money.

“I’m one of those people who liked to play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.

“If you don’t have that mentality you may as well pay your money like the rest of them.

“We had to instill that and really drive that home. That Leeds team were a bunch of Indians, not chiefs.”

The 2004-05 campaign would be his last at the club, and turned out to be an epic one.

They had already played in the Heineken Cup the season before, but by the time they reached the Powergen Cup final in 2005 - having accounted for Northampton Saints and London Irish along the way - Leeds were bottom of the league, headed for relegation and given no chance of success at Twickenham.

“Bath had never lost in a final over a 10-game stretch or something like that, and their fans all rocked up to Twickenham in t-shirts saying Powergen Cup winners, that’s how confident they were,” remembers Regan.

“That was a huge incentive for us, they were really cocky in the press as well, those sort of press clippings were taped up around the changing room wall.

“We were underdogs and had that underdog mentality.”

Regan had his own extra incentive.

“It was a grudge match for me,” he says. “I’d been pushed out of Bath by the coach at the time and so I thought the best way of getting retaliation was on the pitch.”

Tries from centre Chris Bell and South African winger Andre Snyman plus two penalties and two conversions from Gordon Ross gave Tykes a 20-12 leading heading into the final stages.

“We were eight points in front, there was no way they were getting anywhere near us, we were too dogged, too committed,” says Regan of a culture off the pitch that had seeped into their play on it.

“The training, the set-up at Leeds Tykes. We had a strong mentality, built into us by the coaches.”

Remarkably, there was no hangover from those celebrations on the bus. Leeds beat relegation rivals Harlequins 10 days later and then backed it up with another win over Bath just four days on to secure a safety as unlikely as their Twickenham triumph.

“We were maybe six points adrift at the bottom of the table, but won our last three games,” beams Regan, still fond of those memories and those bonds he forged, even now.

“That last game was an emotional one for me. It was against Bath, in Bath, who we’d beaten a month before in the Powergen Cup final.”

The crowning moment of a Leeds Tykes story that has had its fair share of ups and downs.

Proud name of Leeds Tyke back on the rise

​That 2005 Powergen Cup triumph was the high-point for Leeds Tykes. It never got so good again.

Over the best part of two decades they went through five relegations, two rebrands and a financial collapse before bottoming out in the fourth tier.

But after winning all but three games in the last two seasons they are back on their way up, having won the National Two North title last week, just days after honouring their Cup-winning heroes of 20 years ago at a lunch at Headingley.

“They’ve still got a way to go yet, but it’s great to see them back on the rise,” says Mark Regan.

“At least being in National One they’ll be back down my way, Dings Crusaders are right on my doorstep.”