Clermont Auvergne v Racing 92
Today 5.45pm, BT Sport 3
Clermont have been my guilty pleasure for too long. A team boasting Fritz Lee, Peceli Yato, Aurelien Rougerie, Morgan Parra, Wesley Fofana and Julien Bonnaire have somehow found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on numerous occasions.
They have come again this year and it is so obviously their trophy to win. And yet, something will happen – it always does. Still, what a team. Lee defies the sands of time. He was a journeyman doing the rounds before he ended up in Clermont. He has repaid their faith so many times over and simply never has a bad game.
While Fofana and George Moala are a handful in the middle, the uber class of Damian Penaud will make yard after yard, and with his long, leggy stride, he seems so difficult to ground. Even so, Clermont had to cling on at home in round one of the Top 14 two weeks ago as 13-man Toulouse were held up over the line.
Just last week they were 12 points up in Bayonne and lost by two. So, I find myself picking my one away win of the round. And what a team of mavericks Racing 92 will be when they roll into town.
Everywhere you look, they have international calibre. Virimi Vakatawa is a player I would have argued strongly was the best in the world pre-lockdown, while at 10 is Finn Russell (right, above). He has not had an international stage to play on in 2020 after his expulsion from Scotland’s Six Nations squad. But these are the types of games that can launch you back into the spotlight.