Clermont’s former New Zealand flyhalf Harry Plummer kicked a late drop goal to deny Bordeaux-Begles a place in the French Top 14 playoffs but Clermont, who won 34-31, also just missed qualifying.
Plummer, 27, slotted the three points in the 77th minute, two weeks after the hosts won a second consecutive Champions Cup by hammering Leinster.
Bordeaux-Begles lost five of their opening 11 games and suffered defeat in three of their past five league matches, having been losing finalists in the past two seasons.
Photo: AFP
“It’s very difficult to not see the club in the knock-out matches, because we want to be a club that grows, especially when you see the images of the players with the Champions Cup trophy,” Bordeaux-Begles captain Maxime Lucu said.
“The league is hard, we lost a lot of points at the start of the season, later on and in the winter, which meant we had our backs to the wall,” the scrum-half added after the club failed to reach the play-offs for the first time since 2019.
Despite the victory, Clermont missed out on the playoffs after Racing 92 beat first-place Toulouse 31-20 to finish in fifth and La Rochelle beat Stade Francais 27-22 to end the season in sixth.
Photo: AFP
In the playoffs, Pau host Racing next Saturday before Stade Francais meet La Rochelle again in Paris on Sunday.
Montpellier joined Toulouse in the automatic semi-final spots, after winning 28-25 at Lyon.
Last week, Bordeaux-Begles head coach Yannick Bru said his team had been “stupid” at the start of the season due to poor form.
Bru picked a strong side, having rested players such as winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey in last Sunday’s loss at Toulon, eight days on from the Champions Cup title win.
By the interval, Bordeaux-Begles looked on course for a top six spot, leading 24-14 thanks to tries from scrum-half Maxime Lucu, No. 8 Temo Matiu and flanker Pierre Bochaton.
Clermont cut the advantage to six points with half an hour to play. Centre David Darricarrere crossed followed by Plummer’s conversion, the ex-Blues playmaker is the league’s top points scorer ahead of the playoffs.
Plummer kicked a penalty before full-back Kylan Hamdaoui scored to take the score to 31-24 with 15 minutes to go, which put Les Jaunards in the top six instead of the hosts.
Lucu added his second with Hugo Reus’ conversion bringing the sides level but Bordeaux-Begles were still out of the top six because La Rochelle had taken the lead over Stade Francais.
With three minutes to play, Plummer stunned the 32,000-capacity crowd as he smoothly slotted a drop goal but events at Racing, who took the lead after 66 minutes, and La Rochelle, denied his side a place in the knock-outs.
Perpignan, who were hammered 52-7 at Bayonne, face Provence in the relegation play-off on Sunday as they aim to avoid the drop.
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