Can Tigers blow out Michelin Men?

When Marcel Michelin created a rugby club for his hometown in 1911, he could never have imagined it would become what it is today – the team everyone wants to avoid.

In the finest tradition of the local tyre conglomerate, Clermont drove their way to a 71st straight at the stadium named after their founder, a home quarter-final due reward for their refusal to be diverted from the straight and narrow.

Despite an incessant deluge leaving them to negotiate a peat bog of a pitch, there was never any danger of The Michelin Men losing their grip of a home rule as massive as the Massif Central. Along the way, they reaffirmed their status not so much as a team for all seasons but the team to beat.