Jono Gibbes’ players lost (34-31) to the Irish on Saturday.
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He is probably one of those most predictable French clubs. Not that he is incapable of creativity or reminders from elsewhere, Clermont is nevertheless part of an almost infallible logic: a defeat almost always follows a victory and vice versa. The only two consecutive successes won this season by ASM date back to October.
Since then, Morgan Parra’s teammates have won as many games as they have lost. By falling against Ulster in the Champions Cup (34-31), after winning against Sale (25-19) last weekend, the Auvergnats did not break with tradition on Saturday January 22. If their destiny is no longer in their hands, they can still believe in qualifying for the final draw.
Still in the game at the break (17-12), the Clermontois paid dearly for their indiscipline (8 times penalized in the first period alone and a yellow card against Raka) and their inability to counter the power of the Irish forwards. The first quarter of an hour sums up this meeting well, where history kept repeating itself: Rob Herring allowed Ulster to strike first with a try after a carried ball, to which the former half-de -international scrum, Morgan Parra, responded with a penalty against the posts (5-3, 13th).
A sequence representative of these reactionary Jaunards who never managed to take the match on their own to hope to overthrow the Irish qualified for the round of 16 before the start of the match. It took nearly 29 minutes in the second period to see the Clermontois score. Thanks to a good job by Damian Penaud to lead to the test of Jacobus Van Tonder (69th) the situation was unblocked. Alivereti Raka (73rd), then Judicaël Cancoriet (76th) brought the score closer and it took little to reverse the trend and create the feat.
Despite the defeat, Clermont (7th with 7 points) can still hope to reach the final stages. It could be fixed as early as Saturday evening. A victory for Stade Rochelais in Glasgow (8th, 5 points) or Exeter against Montpellier would allow him to continue the European adventure.