Clermont of Vern have real Heineken thirst

Virtually unbeatable at their State Marcel-Michelin citadel and flying in the Top 14, Europe's premier trophy is the one they really want now, writes GERRY THORNLEY

ON NOVEMBER 21st in 2009, like most sides who go to Stade Marcel-Michelin, Biarritz were pummelled for the best part of 79 minutes. But Clermont butchered five or six clear try-scoring opportunities and, trailing 13-9, Biarritz scored with the last play of the game.

Valery Lefort, rugby correspondent with the Clermont-based La Montagne, recalls: “It was unbelievable. The domination was so strong all game long but they could not take their chances. They were still winning the game but then Biarritz scored with maybe their only attack of the game two seconds before the end. They could play this game 100 times and Biarritz would lose 99 times.”

It remains one of only three home defeats Clermont have suffered in the last six years, low-lying Castres surprising them in ’08-09, thanks to a couple of tries by the former New Zealand sevens speedster Brad Fleming, and Sale Sharks winning there in the opening pool game of the 2008-09 Heineken Cup campaign.

But since then Clermont have won 36 Top 14 and Heineken Cup games in a row at the Marcel-Michelin.

“I still remember that Biarritz game,” reflected Joe Schmidt, who was then in his third and last season as backs coach to Vern Cotter with Clermont.

“I’ve got to say I was pretty gutted. But sometimes it can spur you on and get you motivated to go forward, and I was certainly pretty happy with the 2009-’10 season because we managed to have the Bouclier du Brennus at the end of it, so it wasn’t too bad.”

In Clermont’s 98th season, and after three successive losing finals and 10 in total, that didn’t so much remove a monkey from Clermont’s collective backs as what Schmidt describes as “a gorilla”.

Now, in their centenary season and with an expanded Marcel-Michelin there is a huge buzz around the club.

“I know they’re targeting the Heineken Cup. Vern (Cotter) is quite overt about that whereas last year they were having a crack but didn’t want anyone to know,” says Schmidt.

“This year they’ve been outspoken about it. I’ve seen “Roro” (captain Aurelien Rougerie) mention it in the paper that they’re targeting it and they have bought enough players with real quality to make sure they can outclass a lot of teams, or outpower them.”

Lefort concurs. “The goal for the season was to reach the H Cup quarter-final, and then to do better of course. But the quarter-final was the minimum, and then maybe to win.”

So it is that the likes of David Skrela, Regan King, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Lee Byrne, Nathan Hines and Gerhard Vosloo were brought in as the retiring Mario Ledesma, Martin Scelzo, Sione Lauaki, Napolioni Nalaga and Benoît Baby and others moved on.

“They have two players for each place and sometimes three; the best (squad) they’ve ever had in their history,” says Lefort, who also says the club have the best academy in France.

In 2010, they were the first French club to complete the treble of Top 14, and both the championnat d’espoirs (under-23) and championnat Reichel (under-18), both of which they won last season and are currently runaway leaders of again.

This season, 17 academy products have played for the senior team, from stalwarts such as Rougerie, Julien Malzieu and Anthony Floch to more recent products such as Wesley Fofana, thrillingly converted from wing to lethal centre, backrower Julien Bardy and the highly regarded 20-year-old Jean-Michel Buttin (a winger/fullback who is their leading try scorer in the Top 14 with four tries in eight games).

Also targeting another Bouclier du Brennus, such lofty ambitions are helped when you are virtually impregnable at home. Akin to Thomond Park, if anything the club-owned Marcel-Michelin’s gradual redevelopment, increasing its capacity from 12,000 to 18,000 at a cost of €12 million and completed last summer, has only intensified the fortress feel to the ground. It also now has modern corporate facilities, restaurants and conference rooms to increase revenue streams.

“When they decided to rebuild the stadium, the club said it was stupid to build a stadium and use it only 16 to 20 times a year,” said Lefort on Thursday. “So they host conferences, lunches and business every day. It is full today. It is a big machine. Even Toulouse came here to look at it as an example.”

Save for the Parisian duo, Clermont are the most northerly of the remainder in the Top 14, and while still in a relative rugby stronghold – newly promoted Lyon, Brive and Bourgoin, Grenoble and Aurilliac in ProD2 are not too far away – Clermont are very much Big Brother, thanks in the main to the close association with the Michelin plant next door.

“There used to be a hell of a lot more but there are still 15,000 people working in the Michelin factories and buildings in Clermont, so they’re the starting point for the supporter base,” says Schmidt.

Expansion also had to happen, for the team was outgrowing the ground.

“The thing with Clermont is they could double sell it. I couldn’t understand how they just let people queue up outside and no-one got special treatment to buy season tickets and they used to cap it at 8,000, and people would camp out overnight to get season tickets. The rest were left to take their chances on match days,” says Schmidt, adding even those with stand seats often come early to be four or five deep at the side of the pitch to support their team in the warm-up.

As Tony McGahan has conceded after two treks there when Munster had to draw on all they had to escape with valuable bonus points it is, quite probably, the toughest ground in Europe for away sides, and Schmidt, who coached there for three years before returning there to help Leinster obtain a deserved losing-bonus point last season, says: “It’s certainly as tough a place as I can think of.”

Unlike at the Ernest-Wallon, and more akin to Toulon’s ground, the fans remain situated closely to the pitch at the Marcel-Michelin despite an increased capacity from about 12,000 four years ago to, eventually, the completed 18,000 it is now.

Hence, the cacophonous sound creates an even bigger din.

“That cacophony is one of the major problems in trying to communicate on the field amongst the players, let alone coaches making any sense of what anyone else is saying on the sidelines,” admits Schmidt. “Because it is very, very noisy and the fans often have those inflatable tubes that they bang together, or they have these cardboard bands that make a hell of a lot of noise when they whack them together.”

“But I would have to say it is one of the grounds where, in normal circumstances anyway, they are polite to the opponents when they’re kicking at goal. They actually slow-cap their own kickers because that’s the way they do it, but they are pretty polite considering some of the crowds you go to in France, like Toulon. They are diabolical.”

This season, the noise levels have also risen a few decibels while making the ground reverberate.

Supporters of Les Jaunards (the vulcans) like to jump up and down in wave-like synchronicity chanting: “Qui ne sauté pas, n’est Auvergnat.” (If you don’t jump, you’re not (from) the Auvergne).

In true French fashion, the Auvergne crowd can also influence referees. “I know when we went there last year they got stuck in to Wayne Barnes a couple of times and there was a little bit of jeering and stuff, but nothing over the top. I think in two, if not all, of the three years I was there they won the award for the most sporting crowd of the season.”

Then there’s the mentality of visiting sides, especially in the Top 14, where some of the routine home wins for the delectation of the home crowd are as inevitable as bull fights, though at least the bull puts up a fight.

“Certainly one of the things with the French is that they don’t travel as well, and if you get a reputation for getting up early in the morning you can sleep until mid-day,” says Schmidt, in highlighting how teams might look ahead to the next few games in their itinerary and not many would be of a mind to target the Michel-Martin.

“They might look at that one and decide that there is no point in beating their heads against a wall. And I truly believe that part of Clermont’s (record) is that teams don’t always go there to win.

“They come from there satisfied that they’ve rested some of their big players and they go hard at other games. The Top 14 is so attritional that teams have to do that, and I know at Clermont we used to do that.”

Other clubs may have their big benefactors but, superbly structured from the bottom up, with two well-established and settled coaches, both Clermont and Toulouse also have the biggest financial clout and well established playing cultures to augment their array of galacticos.

“In fairness to Vern Cotter,” says Schmidt, “I’d have to say that if you look at the five years prior to his arrival to the five years he’s been there there’s a massive difference in consistency and a lot of that is the culture he brought to the club and the demands he places on the players to be very much part of the collective.”

Ten points clear of the rest domestically, and the only French teams in contention for Heineken Cup quarter-final places, Clermont and Toulouse are not only way ahead of the posse domestically at the moment, but look like being there for many years to come.

2009-10

32-3 v Bourgoin

40-30 v Leicester Tigers (HC)

52-10 Brive

39-3 Toulon

27-7 Ospreys (HC)

45-18 Albi

22-17 Perpignan

41-3 Montpellier

25-19 Castres

21-17 Racing-Métro

2010-11

33-9 Brive

27-10 Montpellier

24-6 Castres

45-19 SU Agen

23-10 Saracens (HC)

27-13 Stade Français

32-25 Stade Toulousain

20-13 Leinster (HC)

22-16 Perpignan

34-9 Bourgoin

28-17 Racing-Métro 92 (HC)

31-15 Racing-Métro 92

24-19 Bayonne

19-12 Toulon

41-13 Biarritz

34-10 La Rochelle

27-17 Biarritz (Top 14 quarter-final)

2011-12

22 – 13 Lyon

34 – 6 Begles-Bordeaux

19 – 13 Aviron Bayonnais

29 – 13 Agen

41 – 0 Biarritz

54 – 3 Aironi Rugby (HC)

33 – 16 Castres

30 — 12 Leicester Tigers (HC)

25 – 19 Toulon

Pts For: 1,093. (Ave 30.4). Pts Ag: 455. (Ave 12.6).