Clermont followed up on their rare victory at Munster with an impressive 26-19 victory at home over the Irish province in the European Champions Cup on Sunday.
The Top 14 side stunned Munster last weekend at Thomond Park, winning 16-9, and their latest back-to-back triumph moved them atop Pool 1 (on 14 points), one point ahead of Saracens, who were 28-15 victors over winless Premiership rivals Sale on Saturday.
Qualification for the knockout stage is going to be a challenge for two-time former champions Munster, sitting in third in the pool on 10 points due to a last-minute Ian Keatley penalty that handed them a bonus defensive point.
Photo: AFP
The Irish have a trip to Saracens to come before rounding off with a home game against Sale, while Clermont are away at Sale before welcoming Saracens to Stade Marcel Michelin.
However, there was bad news for Ulster as they went down 22-13 at Scarlets, for whom Rhys Priestland kicked 17 points alongside James Davies’ late try.
It was Scarlets’ first ever win over Irish opposition in 12 European games and the result moved them into second behind Toulon, Saturday’s 23-8 victors over Leicester, who, like the Llanelli outfit, also have eight points, but are in third on points difference.
In Clermont, Munster flyhalf Keatley kicked two early penalties, but the home side hit back with a fine team try set up by a Wesley Fofana break supported by prop Thomas Domingo and Morgan Parra, with skipper Damien Chouly driving over from close range.
Camille Lopez missed the extras, but hit a 26th minute penalty before handing over to Parra for a long-distance three-pointer.
Parra’s effort just before halftime fell well short, but a poor clearance saw former France captain Aurelien Rougerie haring back down the wing.
Munster fullback Felix Jones did well to haul the center down, but the Irish side’s clearing kick was again quickly recycled and found its way to Fijian winger Noa Nakaitaci, who spotted a gap and proceeded to step his way through the defense and stretch over the whitewash for a fine individual try.
Lopez was successful with the conversion to leave it 15-6 at the break, Keatley kicking a third penalty just into the second period to keep Munster in the game.
Welsh referee Nigel Owens then sin binned Felix Jones after his cynical raising of a knee into Lopez as the Clermont flyhalf went to chase his own kick ahead.
Lopez compounded Irish concerns by kicking the resulting penalty and added another in the 58th minute after some hard-hitting defense paid off, the Irish guilty of holding on too long in the tackle.
Clermont No. 8 Fritz Lee knocked on over the Munster line as the French team turned the screw, Chouly eventually crossing for his second try after latching on to a pinpoint cross-kick by Lopez and riding Simon Zebo’s tackle.
Munster’s Duncan Casey scored a late interception try, which was converted by Keatley, who then kept his nerve to nail the all-important penalty to gift his side a point.
Earlier in the day, Wasps put themselves right back in contention in Pool 2 when they ran out 44-17 winners over Castres in their final home match at Adams Park before their move to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.
Fickle winds produced farcical scenes yesterday on day two of the America’s Cup challenger series in Auckland, as the so-called “flying” yachts spent almost as much time in the water as above it. “I’m not sure today is a really accurate read because it’s so puffy, it’s shifty,” British sailing legend Ben Ainslie said after his Ineos Team UK maintained their perfect start to the Prada Cup series with a third straight win. The series would determine which of the 23m yachts — which fly above the water balanced on hi-tech foil arms — would challenge defending champion Team New Zealand for
VIRUS RISK: India’s Saina Nehwal tested positive for COVID-19 at the Yonex Thailand Open, while three other players were being retested after receiving conflicting results Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday returned to international competition after an eight-month break with a victory at the Yonex Thailand Open in Bangkok. Twenty-six-year-old Tai, 26, the top-seeded player at the tournament, met 18-year-old Thai player Benyapa Aimsaard in the opening round and narrowly won 21-18, 26-24. Her previous tournament was the Yonex All England Open in March last year, where she won the women’s singles title, before the BWF World Tour was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Benyapa was a last-minute replacement after another Thai player pulled out of the event. It was a rollercoaster match for Tai.
NO FAIRY TALE: Non-league Marine tried to bridge the biggest gap between opponents in FA Cup history, but the part-timers fell to a 5-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur Leeds United on Sunday suffered a humiliating FA Cup exit against Crawley Town as the League Two side swept to a stunning 3-0 win, while eighth-tier Marine’s hopes of causing the competition’s greatest shock were crushed in a 5-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur. After the spiking COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with matches across the third round on Friday and Saturday, the FA Cup was back on more familiar ground on Sunday as Leeds became the competition’s latest big name to be knocked out by feisty underdogs. While Marine’s romantic adventure was cut short by a Carlos Vinicius hat-trick, and Chelsea and Manchester
DOUBLES VICTORY: The men’s doubles pairing of Taiwanese Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin downed Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, and face South Koreans today Men’s badminton world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen yesterday marched into the semi-finals of the Thailand Open, defeating younger opponent Lee Zii-jia 21-17, 21-15 after a rally, while Tai Tzu-ying had no trouble getting past her Canadian opponent in the women’s singles. The top male Taiwanese credited calm and focus in securing his win after briefly falling behind against his 22-year-old Malaysian opponent. “I think I had more patience against him and I won most of the long rallies,” the 31-year-old Chou said of Lee. “He wanted to attack [too much] and maybe he lost some focus,” Chou said. In today’s semi-finals, second-seeded Chou faces
RSS