The Most Frustrating Rugby Team In France

Despite having all the ingredients to win championships, ASM Clermont Auvergne repeatedly come up agonisingly short. They are, writes James Harrington, the most frustrating rugby team in France.

One of the great French rugby mysteries of modern times – up there with the selection policies of former national coach Philippe Saint-André and referee Jérôme Garcès – is the continuing and perennially frustrating failure of Top 14 giants Clermont to win any silverware.

This is the side that won every home match in all competitions between November 2009 and May 2014 – a winning streak of some 76 games.

This is the team that boasts among its frankly scary backline little general Morgan Parra, hot-scalpel-through-runny-butter Wesley Fofana, bam-bam Rémi Lamerat, silken streak Noa Nakaitaci, opportunist David Strettle, and former European Player of the Year Nick Abendanon.

This is the side that has scored at between 26 and 47 points in its first five matches this season.

This is the club that, on Saturday, benched internationals Camille Lopez, Thomas Domingo, Damien Chouly, Aaron Jarvis and Benson Stanley, and still put 40 points and five tries past Bordeaux.

The week before the Bordeaux massacre, the Jaunards demolished Racing 92, the reigning Top 14 champions, 47-10 and six tries to one.

Once upon a time, the Montferrand side’s away form was their achilles’ heel. Stade Marcel Michelin may have been a fortress at the top of a cruel mountain surrounded by shark-infested waters, but they didn’t travel well.

They don’t have that excuse any more. They won 8 of 13 on the road to finish the 2015/16 regular season at the top of the table.

But they run into trouble at the business end of the season – when trophies and titles, honour and glory, are up for grabs.

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To say they have not won a title since the 2010 Top 14 championship does not tell the whole story. They were losing finalists in 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2015. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, they were knocked out in the semi-finals. In 2014, they lost at home for the first time in 77 matches to go out at the ‘barrages’ stage of the play-offs – effectively the quarterfinals.

They have reached two European Cup finals in the past three seasons without bringing home the trophy. At the end of the 2014/15 season, when they lost both European and domestic finals, club president Eric De Cromieres was moved to write an open letter of apology to the fans.

But, the nature of top-flight rugby is such that – no matter the disappointments that went before – sides pick themselves up, dust themselves down and try again when the new season comes around.

So, maybe this will be Clermont’s season. At first glance, it seems they have started well enough.

But look closer. Their start to the season is probably best described as ‘odd’. They opened their Top 14 campaign with a trio of away games while a new hybrid pitch was put down at Stade Marcel Michelin. They racked up two draws and a win.

So far, so solid. And most sides would be delighted with eight points from three away games in a league where wins on the road are historically harder to find than rocking-horse droppings.

Clermont, however, ought to be slightly ashamed. In their opener at La Rochelle, they roared into a 14-point lead, but let the hosts score 20 points in 20 minutes to eventually hold them to a 30-30 draw.

After a hard-fought win at Montpellier, Clermont again let a winning position slide at Stade Francais. With less than a minute left on the clock, they were seven points ahead – then their defence went to sleep, and this happened:

Stade’s Jules Plisson coolly slotted the conversion to level the scores.

The fact is Clermont have it all. They have the playing talent. They have the bootroom resources. They have coaches with vision and cunning. They have fans so passionate that the word doesn’t do them justice.

And yet, when it matters, all that skill, experience and passion somehow vanishes without trace. They are arguably the most exciting team to watch in the Top 14. They are definitely the most frustrating.