Heineken Cup Review - Clermont Auvergne 36 - 14 Montpellier

Clermont have always confused me as a side.  Despite, unofficially, being the 'best team in Europe' (if you’re to believe the critics) over the past few years, the French side have precious little to show for it – just one domestic title 3 years ago as the only major trophy in the illustrious club's possession.  I put this lack of finishing ability down to the fact they play in yellow.  It's hardly a fearsome colour is it?  Yellow is the colour of lemons, Norwich City and a road in the Wizard of Oz – none of which are particularly intimidating.  Good job then, that the hosts were playing in white on Saturday, because with the likes of Morgan Parra, Wesley Fofana, Aurelien Rougerie, Nathan Hines, Julien Bonnaire and Sitiveni Sivivatu in their ranks, these guys can play some seriously good rugby.  And at home, they've been unbeaten for 3 and a half years – the home crowd demands victories.

Despite all expectations though, Clermont opened the match with all the alertness of a lethargic sloth, allowing their underdog opponents to dominate possession and territory.  With Mamuka Gorgodze punching holes and flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo beating Clermont to most breakdowns, Montpellier managed to pressurise the hosts into conceding penalties and after a quarter of the game they led 9-3, with 3 penalties from scrum half Benoit Paillaugue to just one from Morgan Parra.  But then came a key moment in the game that had the same effect of Montpellier as a pesky iceberg had on the Titanic – an injury to influential fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc, who had been dictating tempo nicely for the visitors – and slowly but surely, the visiting resistance began to sink without a trace.

Firstly Wesley Fofana went over following a delightful chip over the top from Parra before, barely five minutes later, Sitiveni Sivivatu beat seemingly half of the Montpellier team in an electrifying run, finishing with an offload to Aurelien Rougerie, allowing the captain to touch down beneath the sticks.  It gave the hosts a 6 point advantage at the break, but there was a feeling that the floodgates were being prised open – and it was only a matter of time before more tries came flooding through.

Fofana glided through a gap in midfield to feed Sivivatu, who repeated his trick of running round everyone to score an unbelievably good individual score from halfway early in the second half, before Lee Byrne touched down later on following a sharp offload from Rougerie.  Napolioni Nalaga cantered over for a fifth score, and although Timoci Nagusa's brilliant finish restored some pride, it couldn't put a dampener on what had been a hugely impressive showing from the hosts.

The yellow army march on.  And boy do they mean business.