Clermont halts Leinster’s unbeaten run

PARIS: French side Clermont ended two-time defending European Cup champions Leinster’s 17-match unbeaten run in the competition yesterday beating the Irish province 15-12 in a gripping encounter.
Clermont’s win — their 51st successive home win and who were the last side to beat Leinster in 2010 — puts them five points clear of the Irish side ahead of the return fixture in Dublin next weekend.
Morgan Parra gave Clermont a 9-6 lead by the half hour mark with three penalties while his Leinster counterpart Jonathan Sexton — playing his 100th competitive game for the Irish province — converted two.
Sexton pulled them level in the 33rd minute as Leinster dominated the game without being able to turn it into tries.
Referee Nigel Owens was forced to give the two captains Leo Cullen and Aurelien Rougerie a warning that he would be forced to sin bin someone soon with the number of infringements taking place in the teams 22.
It was from the latest offense that Parra restored the hosts lead with another penalty for 12-9 and Australian fly-half Brock James dropped a goal on the stroke of half-time to give Clermont a 15-9 lead.
Sexton reduced the deficit in the 53rd minute as Leinster dominated again, but still came up short in crossing the line — replacement hooker Richardt Strauss not helping with three terrible throws at line-outs close to the Clermont line.
Earlier French side Montpellier ran out 35-24 winners over Cardiff Blues in their pool match but they made hard work of winning it playing against 14 men for 55 minutes of the match.
Victory kept Montpellier, coached by former France captain Fabien Galthie, in with a chance of reaching the knockout stage, though, they trail Top 14 rivals Toulon by five points with three games remaining.
Defeat for Cardiff left them on just one point and continued the miserable run of Welsh clubs in this season’s competition with only one win in nine matches for the three sides involved.
Cardiff put up a spirited display despite being reduced to 14 men in the 25th minute as scrum-half Lloyd Williams got a deserved red card from Irish referee John Lacey for a terrible spear tackle on his opposite number Benoit Paillaugue.
Lacey, a who had scored two tries on his previous trip to Cardiff’s ground for Munster before injury ended his career, had no hesitation once he had separated the two sets of players in sending off Williams.
However, the hosts shrugged off that setback and stayed in touching distance of the 2011 French rugby finalists, who scored just the one try in the remainder of the first-half through Pierre Berard in the 31st minute.
Paillaugue, though, kept the French side’s score ticking over but he was matched by the highly-impressive Blues fly-half, 19-year-old Rhys Patchell, who not only scored all their points, including a drop goal, but also produced a try saving tackle on Berard with an hour gone.
Paillaugue gave the visitors some breathing space with a penalty soon after for 22-18 and then the outstanding Georgian flanker Mamuka Gorgadze looked to have sealed the game when he stretched over the line to touch down.

However, Patchell slotted over two quick penalties — the second from distance — to reduce the lead to just three points with nine minutes remaining but Paillaugue kicked a penalty of his own to make it 30-24.
With Cardiff having to throw caution to the wind and score a try of their own it was little surprise they conceded a third, a well worked one two minutes from time from Fijian Timoci Nagusa, who touched down in the corner after being set up by man of the match Gorgadze.