Clermont down Toulouse to reclaim top spot

Clermont returned to the top of the French League with a tight 29-25 victory over Toulouse in the Top 14 yesterday. They had briefly been replaced at the league summit on Saturday when La Rochelle held Toulon to a 1717 draw. But Clermont opened up a three-point lead as tries from Arthur Iturria and Remi Lamerat, alongside 19 points from the boot of Morgan Parra, gave them a vital win.

Toulouse outscored Clermont by three tries to two on the back of a dominant pack that forced a penalty try after scores from Samoan pair Census Johnston and Joe Tekori. But indiscipline cost the 19-time French champions who had to content themselves with a losing bonus point that leaves them sixth. Clermont were off to a flyer after a glaring error from Toulouse scrum-half Samuel Marques in the fifth minute.

His pass deep in Toulouse territory was intercepted by Clermont fly-half Camille Lopez and although he was tackled inside the visitors’ 22 by Kiwi Luke McAlister, he managed to offload to lock Iturria to score under the posts. Scrum-half Parra converted and shortly afterwards landed a penalty to boot. Toulouse hit back on 17 minutes from a close-range line-out. They got the rolling maul into gear and prop Johnston barged over to score, although Portugal’s Marques hit the post with the conversion attempt. Parra knocked over a penalty off the upright and then a mazy, darting run from Wesley Fofana took Clermont right up to the Toulouse tryline, and although Australian hooker Nathan Charles was held up a few centimetres short, a few plays later Lamerat managed to burst through.

Parra converted but Toulouse got back into the match before the break as lock Tekori bulldozed over from close range, through Parra and wing Noa Nakaitaci, after the visitors ran a succession of penalties after the half-time buzzer.

The pendulum seemed to be swinging in Toulouse’s favour as Clermont’s No.8 Fritz Lee was sin-binned for a high tackle on Jean-Marc Doussain with Marques kicking the penalty.

But almost immediately Parra replied to stretch back the hosts’ lead to 23-15.

Clermont were struggling at the set-piece, though, and prop Thomas Domingo was yellowcarded after collapsing a scrum five yards from his own line, leaving Clermont with 13 players.

Their seven-man scrum couldn’t handle the pressure and soon gave up a penalty try, with Marques converting to make it a one-point game. Yet almost immediately, Toulouse’s Fijian wing Semi Kunatani stupidly got himself sinbinned for trying to kick the ball out of Parra’s hands and the scrum-half made the visitors pay by landing his fourth penalty as Lee returned to the fray.

With both teams back to full strength, Florian Fritz kicked a monstrous penalty from inside his own half 10 minutes from time to make it 26-25 but Parra had the last word with his fifth penalty after Toulouse collapsed a maul In the day’s other game, Lyon moved up three places to ninth with a 27-22 win over Pau.