Leicester 20 Clermont 15:SOME GAMES sort the men from the boys. This was one of them, a cold and hard occasion, but ultimately it offered succour for both sides. Clermont's losing bonus point effectively means they will top the pool with a four-try win against the Ospreys next month. The Tigers remain in the hunt to qualify for the quarter-finals as one of two runners-up.
In Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, Leicester have further reason to be cautiously optimistic. Neither can yet be classified as a household name beyond the city’s ring road but on Saturday both rose to the biggest occasion of their careers. So did Toby Flood, who was a genuine threat on the gain line from outhalf, giving the watching England manager, Martin Johnson, food for thought.
The most luminous piece of skill was a classic break from Youngs which saw the scrum-half weave half the length of the field before feeding Anthony Allen with a forward-looking pass for the Tigers’ first try, in the 30th minute.
The 20-year-old, whose father is the former England number nine Nick Youngs, has all the attributes. His coaches would prefer consistency. “He’s a special talent but he’s got to make sure he’s good every week,” said Matt O’Connor, Leicester’s backs coach.
That is increasingly true of the 22-year-old Cole, a tighthead of fast-rising promise. He was a stand-out figure when Leicester gave the Wasps frontrow a torrid examination a fortnight ago and he caught the eye again here after replacing Martin Castrogiovanni inside eight minutes. O’Connor reckons the locally-reared Cole is a “fantastic athlete” who is “easily” good enough to play Test rugby.
Clermont’s long wait to make an impact in the Heineken Cup shows signs of coming to fruition. They were canny and patient and Brock James’s decision to settle for a losing bonus point rather than seek a match-winning try with the game’s last play was revealing. Amazingly, the French heavyweights have never qualified for the knockout stages.
Their former Scotland captain, Jason White, detected a strong desire to change things. “If we get a home quarter-final, I don’t think there would be any team who would fancy coming to the Stade Marcel Michelin,” he said.
Leicester’s head coach Richard Cockerill, whose four-week match-day ban is now complete, said later the lawmakers should reduce the number of points awarded for drop goals, having watched James land three sweetly-struck efforts to circumvent Leicester’s suffocating defence.
Maybe two points would be more appropriate but then again, should Leicester have gained seven from a horribly-sliced 74th-minute punt by Flood which bounced into the arms of the unmarked Scott Hamilton?
If ever there was conclusive proof that rugby matches are not won by artistic merit, this was it.
Guardian Service
LEICESTER TIGERS:Hamilton; Tuilagi, Hipkiss, Allen, Tuqiri; Flood, B Youngs; Ayerza, Davies, Castrogiovanni, L Deacon (capt), Parling, Newby, Moody, Crane. Replacements:Cole for Castrogiovanni (7 mins), Murphy for Tuilagi, Chuter for Davies (both 66 mins), Staunton for Hipkiss (77 mins).
CLERMONT AUVERGNE:Floch; Rougerie (capt), Canale, Bai, Malzieu; James, Parra; Faure, Ledesma, Zirakashvili, Cudmore, Pierre, Bonnaire, Audebert, Vermeulen. Replacements:Domingo for Faure (43 mins), White for Vermeulen (52 mins), Privat for Cudmore (64 mins), Senio for Parra (66 mins), Fofana Canale (70 mins).
Referee:N Owens (Wales).
