Sleeping giant finally awakens

It was around midnight on Saturday when the first of the cars, horns blaring and flags flying, pulled off the A75 and headed towards the centre of Clermont-Ferrand.

By Sunday morning most of the 20,000 had returned from Montpellier, the bunting, balloons and flags still stuck to the cars.

The town centre, which hadn’t seen the yellow and blue since they won the Top 14 three years ago, suddenly had colour. The previous evening the 5,000 or so who travelled to support Munster had seen les jaunes et les bleus in all its glory at Stade de la Mosson and in admiring the class of the Clermont team, the visiting fans will have also tipped the cap to the quality of the supporters from Michelin country.