Clermont v Tigers HC Match Preview

The Long Goodbye - Twelve years was a long time to stay with one company (although my father managed forty) where having joined as a clerk I had clambered up the greasy corporate pole as high as I could go in what was essentially a family controlled plc.

Such was the nature of the company that anyone under the age of fifty could dismiss any notion of a board appointment which was the next rung on the ladder and I was just twenty-five.

It was no longer a case of earning advancement as it was agreed that hurdle had been repeatedly cleared but members from the controlling family were to be preferred for the next quarter of a century and it was a dynasty with the spread of the House of Windsor. So I was moving on. 

I was grateful for all they’d taught me, the years had been formative.  After the Chairman’s offer of more money to stay had been rejected they insisted that I work the three months notice my contract demanded. 

 I made it clear to my new employer that as I had agreed to the notice period and enjoyed the security it had afforded me there was no question of my reneging and they were happy to wait for me to be free of further obligation before joining them. 

The raison d'être for enforcing my prolonged notice was ostensibly to provide time for a replacement to be found and a smooth handing over of the reins to take place.  However my assistant was appointed within days. He was a good and capable choice who’d already run the department during periods when I was absent. 

I was nevertheless required to hang around like a bad smell. There was nothing much for me to do but during those interminable weeks I turned up on time each morning and left at the appointed hour every evening. 

 Initially there was much slapping of back and pumping of hand, wishes of fair winds were extended, lunches were bought, drink consumed and promises to keep in touch made but soon I was an irrelevance. Oh yes I was still part of the management cadre. I still attended meetings but was like a maiden aunt at a disco, I wasn’t part of it, I had already mentally moved on and my soon to be erstwhile colleagues had moved on as well. 

It was a hugely unsatisfactory end to what had been a dozen happy and rewarding years so when my final day arrived and I eventually made my farewells there was almost a sense of surprise that I was still there, which of course I hadn’t been in either the emotional or intellectual sense for almost a quarter of the year. 

I do wonder therefore at the ability of professional sportsmen, none more so than rugby players, to expose themselves to injury when there are new, enticing, sunlit Elysian meadows just over the horizon.  It must demand considerable mental acuity to fulfil the promise of unstinting commitment so easily and honestly made when departure is announced and especially with injury an ever present threat, an injury that could turn those beckoning verdant meadows into primordial swamp. 

This Saturday the likes of Toby Flood and Thomas Waldrom will most likely be severely tested if they join the fray down in Clermont. They’ll do their best I’m sure although Flood had, I’d thought, been subdued and somehow semi-detached during his brief cameos since he ceased to become the default starting choice after announcing his departure to Toulouse coincided with a dip in form. However at Franklins Gardens he put in a feisty vignette - impressive. 

This weekend’s encounter will be a mighty challenge for Tigers, particularly as it seems necessary to go back to prelapsarian days to find the last time Clermont were defeated at their Stade Marcel Michelin fortress where they’ve prevailed in their last seventy-four matches and Scotland Head Coach elect; the straight talking, no nonsense Kiwi, Vern Cotter will want to keep that record intact until his end of season departure after eight years in charge. 

Tigers though have a rich heritage of grasping victory at the most daunting and unlikely of venues: Parc de Princes in May 2001, Dublin in April 2005 and Thomond Park in January 2007 will immediately spring to the minds of Tigers’ supporters.  And who’s to say another historic victory is not on the cards this Saturday?  

Last weekend Cotter’s top placed men travelled to Brive where they came unstuck, narrowly losing by scoring twenty-four points to the hosts’ twenty-six. 

 This in spite of a positive flurry of Yellow Cards which saw Brive down to thirteen men at one point although Clermont could only manage a solitary Morgan Parra penalty during their period of numerical superiority. Brive though managed ten points while Nathan Hines spent another ten minutes on the naughty step, making his second trip to the sidelines in this season’s Top 14.  No stranger to the confines of the Sin Bin is our Nathan, this weekend’s visit being the eighteenth of his career to add to the Red Card he received when Scotland met the USA back in June 2002. 

At the end of the weekend’s action Clermont had slipped to third in the Top 14 behind Toulon in second and Tigers’ twice vanquished Heineken Cup pool opponents; Montpellier, who are top. 

In a spooky coincidence the following afternoon; Mr Barnes also saw fit to reduce Tigers to thirteen men as he put in another typically incoherent, mistake riddled performance only adding to the tension of another splenetic match between Tigers and Northampton. 

In spite of Mr Barnes running a lovely blocking line to facilitate Saints’ first try before denuding the visitors’ defence to similarly aid the second, Tigers prevailed and moved to third in the Premiership table.

Having already seen off Montpellier on their home turf and hitting some compelling form of late Tigers will go to Clermont wary but confident, which sets up an intriguing contest. It’s just a shame that Irish/French referee Alain Rolland is in charge rather than Nigel Owens who’s instead at Thomond Park. 

Cotter will be pleased to see ex Tiger; Benjamin Kayser back from a rib injury which kept him out of action for a while and although he gave way to New Zealand born, ex Crusader; Samoan international Ti’i Paulo in Clermont’s starting line up against Brive I expect to see the dynamic Kayser start next Saturday alongside the nuggety thirty-three time capped French international Thomas Domingo on the loose-head and multi capped Georgian international ; Davit Zirakashvilli on the tight-head. 

In the England (oops; Red Rose) inspired absence of Dan Cole, Samoan international Logo Mulipola has surged to the fore as a more than worthy replacement. 

Tigers could then field, in the indefatigably excellent Ayerza, Mulipola and Tom Youngs, who eclipsed his England rival last weekend and who I hope has had a Tetanus booster, a front row 14kgs heavier than their opponents with Mulipola alone weighing in at 124kgs compared to Domingo’s 106kgs! So it will be a tight contest with the Tigers’ additional bulk maybe forcing front row changes on Clermont earlier than they would perhaps like. 

In the second row Canadian international; Jamie Cudmore has been suffering with a calf injury which may exclude him however one time French international lock Julien Pierre has been occasionally rotated with Cudmore, so little will be lost by the home side other than Cudmore’s lack of discipline that has seen him rack up twenty-seven Yellow Cards and four Reds for his clubs during his lengthy career, starting with Scarlets way back in the 2002/3 Heineken Cup before he briefly moved to Grenoble prior to his arrival at Clermont for the 2005/6 season. 

Should Cudmore and Hines start in tandem then there could be fireworks but if Pierre does indeed step in, who has a mere ten Yellow Cards on his rap sheet, things may be a bit calmer – but not a lot. 

With Louis Deacon retained to give grunt and enforcement duties his full attention.  Ed Slater is having the sort of season players must dream of as he displays an atavistic quality in his play at the set piece and an almost numinous ability to be in the right place at the right time. So I can see the duo  giving their opposite numbers a testing time at the set piece and the breakdown. 

The key though could well lay with the absence for Clermont of line out exponent par excellence; Julien Bonnaire, who’s afflicted with a broken arm, the seventy-three time capped thirty-five year old remains a key element for his team and with one of the likely stand ins; Portugese born Julien Bardy nursing a bad back it could fall to current France international and ex USAP player Damien Chouly to fill the blind side slot for the hosts. 

Tigers of course have their own issues at blind side with World Class Tom Croft still injured, as he has been since the first match of the season and as his usual understudy; Steve Mafi seems to have disappeared into Leicestershire’s version of the Bermuda Triangle, I expect to see Jamie Gibson on duty.  Gibson has been a stunning acquisition for Tigers and his presence in all facets of play has elevated his status ahead of Croft’s return and the arrival of back row reinforcements for next season. 

On the open side for Clermont with not only Bardy maybe absent but also Alexandre Lapandry, who had a couple of starts in France’s #7 shirt in this year’s Six Nations, on the treatment table it could be that South African Vosloo will be drafted in.  Vosloo is not a specialist in the way that Lapandry or Salvi are so with Jordan Crane back in top form and, the newly arrived from Chiefs for this season; Samoan Fritz Lee looking the likely candidate for the Clermont #8 shirt ahead of the veteran  Vermeulen, I think that, Mr Rolland permitting, Tigers may have an advantage around the tackle area where they’ll have to display the precise intensity that we’ve seen of late. 

Away from the crepuscular world of the forwards it’s heartening to see Ben Youngs looking like his old self, what determination, what timing! 

And with the hugely talented, statuesque Morgan Parra opposite him the British Lion will need all the help his forwards can give him.  Parra doesn’t enjoy the rough and tumble always seeming more willing to “hand it out” than be on the receiving end, so I expect he’ll be getting attention from the Tigers’ forwards but here again they’ll need to keep a watchful eye on the unpredictable Rolland who so often officiates in an antiphonal way when French sides are involved. 

There’s an interesting counter point at fly half with the meteorically rising star that is twenty-two year old Owen Williams facing the thirty-two year old Brock James who joined Clermont from Western Force way back in 2006.  I can’t imagine that Williams won’t start or that Flood won’t have a part to play but with the young Welshman seeming to have nerves of steel and being as cool as a pint of Brains the Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin will hold no fears for him.  Ah what it was to be young and fearless! Truly we were masters of the Universe – or so we thought! 

James on the other hand can and has imploded under pressure and if Tigers get on the front foot, which I think they may well do, James could crack – not will but could. 

Sadly for Tigers Wesley Fofana has recovered from a rib injury and was back on duty against Brive but with Sivivatu fighting a shoulder injury and Malzieu also crocked Rougerie could again be replaced by Regan King at outside centre as the Clermont stalwart moves to the wing and then the Clermont midfield doesn’t look quite so daunting a prospect. 

Ex Scarlet, New Zealand born King was in the box seat for the outside centre berth but of late Rougerie has been bringing his considerable presence to the #13 shirt. 

Fofana, while clinical in attack can be precipitous in defence and if King is on duty there could be opportunities for the bang in form Tony Allen to get in behind the first press of the Clermont defence and I think that King will be viewing the prospect of the minatory Tuilagi bearing down on him with less than unbridled enthusiasm, although in defensive situations expect to see Rougerie move inward with alacrity to add support so Allen will need to be at his strategic and organisational Wellingtonian best when Tigers are defending.

Out wide could be the aforementioned Rougerie who is the stuff of legend in French rugby circles.  Capped seventy-five times, the first of which was on 10^th November 2001 when he debuted in France’s 20 point to ten victory over the Springboks, the thirty-three year old played his last international on 17^th March 2012 when he was at outside centre – remarkable international  longevity. 

If Rougerie gets on the hoof then in spite of his losing some of his youthful pace he’ll take all the stopping, a task that will probably fall to Adam Thompstone, who’s been another remarkably perceptive signing by Tigers from London Irish. 

Should Rougerie be on the wing then he’ll likely be paired with the aptly named Fijian international; Napoleoni Nalaga who’s been with Clermont since 2006, aside from a sabbatical with Western Force for the 2011/12 season.  Nalaga is a bit of a try scoring machine having crossed the line ninety-five times in his one hundred and fifty-two club appearances while his eleven caps have yielded a further seven. 

There’ll likely be an interesting reunion for Nalaga when he lines up opposite compatriot Nikki Goneva, Tigers own scoring machine this season.  Both players can have their defensive sphincter contracting “moments” so there promises to be some scrambling by their colleagues from time to time. 

Lee Byrne; notorious with Tigers’ supporters for his part in the egregious “sixteenth man incident” back in January 2010 when he played for Ospreys, is now thirty-three, the four time British Lion and forty-five time capped Welshman remains the first choice full back for Vern Cotter and he’s rewarded the Kiwi coach with four tries from his nineteen outings this term, just out doing the three Yellow Cards he’s also collected.  While Byrne may have also left some of his pace behind him he forms part of a quartet of highly experienced backs when alongside; Rougerie, King and Nalaga who, if they get the ball, can cause enormous damage. 

I dislike intensely the predisposition of certain clubs to play music at the drop of a hat when some incident or score materialises.  The children employed in the marketing departments of the clubs concerned obviously don’t realise that rugby supporters don’t need to be assailed with music, exhortations to support their team or the conducting of mindless Mexican Waves to keep them occupied or amused. 

However I did muse, when watching last Saturday’s meeting between Tigers and Saints that whenever Scott Hamilton got the ball that I could hear Simply Red’s “Holding Back the Years” striking up in my head. 

Matt Tait, once again injured, pulled out late in the last two fixtures, permitting the ex Crusader  and Tigers’ favourite All Black, to get some more game time and while Tait does have stardust in his feet I’d be very wary at replacing the ultra safe Hamilton who has, just as have Clermont’s Rougerie, King and Byrne, lost a bit of pace, it’s vastly experienced players such as these who are needed in the team for big occasions as a balance to the youthful brio of others. 

It’s going to be a great occasion and I’ve veered from the depths of pessimism to the heights of optimism as to the outcome. 

Clermont are star studded and have an enviable home record but may have some persisting key injuries in their pack and elsewhere.  Tigers though are still denied the services of World Class players; Geoff Parling, Dan Cole and Tom Croft but have hit a rich seam of form. 

Hmmm!  You know what?  I can see Tigers doing it – I really can.