News

Clermont march into Top 14 Final

June 21 2008

Clermont will have their ninth crack at taking home the Bouclier Brennus next Saturday, after smashing Perpignan 21-7 in the first Top 14 semi-final in Marseille on Saturday.

The Jaunards dominated from start to finish of an entertaining game, with the league's top tryscorer Napolioni Nalaga terrorising the Catalans' defence, and the team generally having far too much pace for the forward-based Perpignan side.

Brock James set Clermont on their way with a ninth-minute drop goal, and three minutes later they could have been further ahead had Mario Ledesma not dropped the ball while diving for the corner.

Percy Montgomery, playing in what will be his last game for the club, missed a penalty he would normally have slotted, and on twenty minutes, a petulant stamp by Marius Tincu gave James the chance to extend the lead to 6-0.

Then came the first try, one like the Clermont fans have revelled in all season. Benoit Baby got the ball in broken play, linked with Alex Audebert, and there was Nalaga, flying down the left and with a hand-off that was more of a swat before cantering over the line.

James made it 13-0 with the extras, then landed a penalty right on half-time for a collapsed maul to make it 16- at the break.

Nalaga's second try was a carbon copy of his first in the finish, although this time there was an extravagant dive at the end. Perpignan wing Julien Candelon had been going for a break, but he lost the ball in contact, and Audebert once again fed Nalaga for the try.

James blotted his copybook by missing the conversion, but now the game was up at 21-0.

Perpignan threw the kitchen sink into attack thereafter, making a couple of breaks. Gerrie Britz in particular should have done better with a clean break than putting up a clumsy chip.

Eventually Nicolas Laharrague - the man who had slipped off Nalaga's hand-of during the first try - carved a gap of his own and dotted down under the posts to make it 21-7 with Montgomery's extras.

But there was too much ground to make up. Clermont coasted for much of the rest of the match, no doubt determined not to lose in the final three minutes next week as they did last year.

The scorers:

For Clermont:

Tries: Nalaga 2

Cons: James

Pens: James 2

Drop goal: James

For Perpignan:

Try: Laharrague

Con: Montgomery

Clermont: 15 Benoît Baby, 14 Aurélien Rougerie, 13 Marius Joubert, 12 Gonzalo Canale, 11 Napolioni Nalaga, 10 Brock James, 9 Pierre Mignoni, 8 Elvis Vermeulen, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Alexandre Audebert, 5 Thibault Privat, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Davit Zirakashvili, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Laurent Emmanuelli.

Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Christophe Samson, 19 Sam Broomhall, 20 John Senio, 21 Seremaia Baï, 22 Anthony Floch.

Perpignan: 15 Percy Montgomery 14 Adrien Planté, 13 Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, 12 Gavin Hume, 11 Julien Candelon, 10 Nicolas Laharrague, 9 Nicolas Durand, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Gerrie Britz, 6 Viliani Vaki, 5 Christophe Porcu, 4 Rimas Alvarez-Kairélis, 3 Perry Freshwater, 2 Marius Tincu, 1 Nicolas Mas.

Replacements: 16 Guillem Guirado, 17 Sébastien Chobet, 18 Kisi Pulu, 19 Nathan Hines, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 David Mélé, 22 Christophe Manas.

Referee: Christophe Berdos

Touch judges: David Rosich, Bruno Bessot