Clermont have cause to be wary

Nobody has done it now for almost three-and-a-half years, not since a Frenchman who just happens to be appearing in Dublin this weekend on European semi-final business.

Dimitri Yachvili can lay claim to be the last player to kick the winning goal for the opposition against Clermont Auvergne at Stade Marcel Michelin.

He did so for Biarritz, the Basques who stand between Leinster at the RDS on Saturday and next month’s Amlin Cup final in Dublin.

Yachvili’s third penalty on November 21, 2009 secured a 16-13 away win since when the Michelin Men have been simply unbeatable in a city famous for its tyre tycoons.

At the last count, Clermont’s free-wheelers had rolled off 59 straight home wins, 47 in the Top 14, the remainder in Europe.

This season they have done so by an average margin of four tries and almost 40 points. That they have won seven of those matches by 40-plus says everything about the power of their squad.

Not surprisingly, they possess the wing with the highest scoring ratio in Europe — Napolioni ‘Napo’ Nalaga.

Since rejoining Clermont last summer after one season in Australia, the 6ft 3in Fijian has bagged 19 tries in 25 matches, raising his tally for the French club to 80 in 115 appearances.

One more touchdown against Munster on Saturday and the best team not to have reached a Heineken final, let alone won it, will have rattled up their 100th of the season.

Not for nothing, therefore, will Munster be happy to be giving the city itself the widest of berths. Clermont have ample reason to be wary of semi-finals against the Irish, especially when they have to be tackled some distance from the comforts of home.

Leinster famously beat them in Bordeaux this time last year even if it took a rearguard action to prevent Wesley Fofana winning it for Clermont.

The Top 14 leaders will also have been warned about the Munster mystique when it comes to staring down the French in France.

The former champions have had some big wins there in semi-finals, none bigger than when Mick Galwey galvanised his troops into defeating Toulouse 31-25 at Bordeaux 13 years ago, so long ago that they managed it without a youngster by the name of Paul O’Connell. Ronan O’Gara, the sole survivor from the starting team along with one of the replacements, Donnacha O’Callaghan, had a field day, even by his prodigious standards – six goals and a try alongside those from Jason Holland and John Hayes.

Then there is the venue itself – Montpellier. Clermont have lost their last four Top 14 matches in the city, though not all at the Stade de la Mosson, the 35,000 capacity football ground where Leinster needed the ultimate in pressure kicks from Jonny Sexton to get away with a draw last season.

For all their invincibility at home, the French leaders have lost other semi-finals and finals on neutral territory over the last three seasons. Toulouse beat them 29-6 in the Top 14 final in Paris two years ago and Toulon edged them out 15-12 in last season’s semi-final at Toulouse.