Sale Sharks 13 Clermont Auvergne 22

By Whaley Shark
January 18 2015

Well, the real winner was probably the weather. Clermont, with their noses just ahead at the top of the T14, visited the AJB on a freezing night, with a strong breeze and frequent snow and sleet showers. In those circumstances, the quality of the rugby was remarkably good, but I did feel we could see Clermont’s edge in speed of thought and action.

The first half was tight, tighter than I’d expected, and we turned around 6-3 behind after a great deal of Clermont pressure. Some well organised Sale defence saw Clermont going nowhere at times, in spite of a great deal of possession, though they did come close once. Equally, we didn’t really threaten their line. So it looked like a standoff in the snow.

After the break we showed a good deal more. A nice half break from Danny Cipriani tangled the Clermont defence up and, in halting the attack, Wesley Fofana was sin-binned. Tom Arscott threatened to break through a few minutes later and eventually we won a penalty which Danny put into the corner. Our favourite rolling maul lurched and swayed towards the Clermont line and, just as it looked like we’d made it, the referee had seen enough and awarded a penalty try to give us a lead for the first time in the match. Clermont’s Jamie Cudmore joined his teammate in the bin for good measure.

Not that it lasted too long. A stolen lineout set up a very kickable penalty for Clermont to narrow the gap to a single point. A couple of minutes later, a Sale attack on the Clermont 22 broke down with a Clermont penalty. A hefty touch kick set up a lineout on our ten metre line, we conceded another penalty, and that was the end of our lead. We pinched it back again after a few more minutes, with another penalty, only to concede again five minutes later. As the match entered the last ten minutes, Clermont built sustained pressure and our defence started to creak. That pressure told with just five minutes to go and Fritz Lee crossed. With the conversion, the game was over and Clermont were home and dry, 22-13.

It was all a bit of a strange occasion. We had nothing to play for but we still gave one of the top sides in European rugby a pretty good going over. The match was closer than the final scoreline suggests, but Clermont always looked the stronger, sharper side. There’s no disgrace in losing to them, I feel, and it’s probably time to look beyond the next few weeks of cup action, to the business end of the AP.