ECCQF: ASMCA (A) Into The Land of the Tyres

By Mark H
March 28 2007

Quarter finals don't come much tougher than this. Away to the team sitting second in the French Top 14, the emerging force in French rugby, unbeaten at home all season, favourites for the Challenge Cup...need I go on?

Well, yes actually, otherwise we haven't got much of a story.  As Midi Olympique put it in January after they secured top seeding, 2007 could, after 77 years of trying, be Clermont Auvergne's year.  One of only five current Top 14 sides never to have a championship (the others being Albi, Brive, Montpellier and Montauban), there is a growing feeling that they seem destined to be running around the Stade de France with the Brennus come 9th June.

 

It's not for the want of trying in the championship either.  Seven times they've reached the final, and seven times they've come off second best, from their first attempt and subsequent 6-3 loss to give Narbonne their only title in 1936, to the 2001 loss to Toulouse, their last title.  They may have a Challenge Cup behind them (in 1999, when they also lost in the French finale), but there's been nothing domestically for 21 years, when they won their third Challenge Yves du Manoir.  For a club built by the Michelin millions, it's an annoying hole that the class of 2007 desperately want to fill.

 

There's only four survivors from that losing side in 2001, in captain Aurelien Rougerie, Italian scrum half Alessandro Troncon, number eight Alexandre Audebert, and lock David Barrier.  Rougerie in particular will be more than keen to finally guide his club to that long awaited title; born in Clermont, his father also played for the club as a loosehead prop, and was a member of the 1970 side that lost 3-0 to La Voulte Sportif (ironically their only title), and Rougerie junior must feel that he's owed a bit of luck following the horrific throat injury that robbed him of virtually two years of his career.

 

So where have Clermont come from to get to here?  Founded in 1911 as AS Michelin, a club for the Michelin workers, they changed their name in 1922 to AS Montferrand (and are still known as ASM today), before adopting the Clermont Auvergne name three years ago to indicate a representation of their region.  No other side has ever lost seven finals in France without winning at least one, and the fact that five of these defeats have been by six points or less give a fair indication of how close they've come.

 

But the almost farcical record goes on if you look at their cup history.  They've suffered two defeats in the Coupe de France, by three points and one point; and of their six Yves du Manoir defeats, three came by less than six points, and one (to Dax in 1957) was by virtue of having older players!  It's no great shock therefore that their Challenge Cup final defeat in 2004 (having knocked Falcons out 28-23 on aggregate in the second round) came after Harlequins scored and converted a try with the last play of the game.  The margin - one point.  At least when they got the Challenge Cup win in 1999 they made sure of it, beating Bourgoin 35-16.

 

So what's made the difference this season?  Well, the heartbreak of missing out on the seventh Heineken Cup place last season has certainly had an impact - an awful April and May meant that they had to win their last match of the season at Bayonne whilst hope that Pau could beat Castres, and consequently save themselves and send Bayonne down.  Clermont succeeded; three agonising minutes later, Pau failed and were relegated.  Eighth place was simply not good enough.  Kiwi Vern Cotter came in as head coach, and has transformed the club.  Experts in France say that this Clermont vintage is more intense than in previous years, a mirror image of their coach, and all his skills were needed after a start to this season that brought a narrow loss at Biarritz on the opening night, followed by a 45-13 hammering in Paris twelve days later.  From then on though, it's been almost unbroken success.

 

Brock James

 

A massive part of that success has been Brock James; yet another key difference to last season.  Whilst Stephen Jones was felt by some to have been fighting a losing battle in getting the back line going, this Aussie from South Africa is the top points scorer in the Top 14, and possesses the best boot I've ever seen on a fly half.  he is their Jonny - the man who will kick 80%+ for you, the man who will turn a five point deficit into a one point win, the man who kicks that much vaunted backline into life.  His pairing with Pierre Mignoni has clicked so much that Mignoni returned to the French side and is the man in possession of the scrum half berth just five months before the World Cup.  Mignoni himself currently looks to be just about the best scrum half in the world, and if that wasn't bad enough, his back up is Italy's most capped player Alessandro Troncon.

 

Pierre Mignoni lets his pack call the shots at Worcester

 

Add to that backline Anthony Floch, a full back who looks destined for a long international future after the World Cup, the aforementioned Rougerie, Italian centre Gonzalo Canale and the ultra rapid Julien Malzieu, and you have an attacking line better than any you'll find in this country.

 

Anthony Floch (doubtful for Friday) and Julien Malzieu

 

But there is one man more, in ex-French international Tony Marsh - the lynchpin of the backs, organising the line defensively and providing the perfect foil for fly half James.  Add to his overall excellence that he not only survived testicular cancer four years ago but was one of the stand out players in the 2003 World Cup, and you've found the beating heart of this team, its raison d'etre.  Marsh is talking of retirement at the end of the season; he'll want silverware to polish. 

 

Tony Marsh reflects on a job well done

 

They qualified as top seeds from a group with Worcester, Viadana and Albi, ending Albi's 22 month unbeaten home record on the way, and systematically destroyed Worcester at Sixways.  They could even afford to de-register Rougerie (described by Midi Olympique last week as "having a strength-speed ratio unique in France") in a bid to keep him fresh for key domestic matches, but he's back in the squad and will be there on Friday, no doubt determined to play himself into the World Cup squad after being ignored by Bernard Laporte for the Six Nations.  His return to action wasn’t bad either, scoring a hat-trick at Narbonne on Saturday night in Clermont’s bonus point victory that puts them just three points behind Stade Francais at the top of the table.

 

It's imperative that Falcons try and shut down the backline quickly and as often as possible.  Going by the job Clermont did at Worcester in January - 25 points in the first 20 minutes - it won't be easy.

 

The pack's a bit tasty too.  French number eight and current national hero Elvis Vermeulen leads from the back, with Audebert and All Black Sam Broomhall likely to join him in the back row.  The captain of the French under 21 World Champions, Loic Jacquet, will be a massive presence in the second row - look for him to be the long term successor to Fabien Pelous in the national side - whilst there's class in props Laurent Emmanuelli and Martin Scelzo (ex of Northampton), whilst Brice Miguel and Mario Ledesma contest the hooker's jersey.

 

Elvis Vermeulen

 

It's not called the Challenge Cup for nothing.

 

For those travelling, good luck - I hope the various forms of transport get you there safely and on time.  The weather forecast is for snow showers, believe it or not!  For those not, get home early and onto Sky Sports 3 for the unfeasibly early 5pm kick off - it's gone down as well there as it did here.  The winners entertain the Dragons or Brive at home in the semi-final, and it's worth noting that Falcons have beaten both at KP in the last three seasons.  So beat Clermont then, and it's the final.  Yeah right...