Clermont return to summit of Top 14 after 29-25 win over Toulouse
By Paul Vinnell
Last Updated: 09/10/16 6:05pm
Clermont returned to the top of the Top 14 with a 29-25 victory over Toulouse on Sunday.
They had briefly been replaced at the league summit on Saturday when La Rochelle held Toulon to a 17-17 draw.
But Clermont opened up a three-point lead as tries from Arthur Iturria and Remi Lamerat, alongside 19 points from the boot of Morgan Parra, gave them a vital win.
Clermont were off to a flyer after a glaring error from Toulouse scrum-half Samuel Marques in the fifth minute.
His pass deep in Toulouse territory was intercepted by Clermont fly-half Camille Lopez, and although he was tackled inside the visitors' 22 by Luke McAlister, he managed to offload to lock Iturria to score under the posts.
Scrum-half Parra converted and shortly afterwards landed a penalty to boot.
Toulouse hit back on 17 minutes from a close-range line-out, with prop Census Johnston barging over to score.
Lamerat managed to burst over after prop Nathan Charles was held up short of the line, but after the break lock Joe Tekori bulldozed over from close range.
The pendulum seemed to be swinging in Toulouse's favour as Clermont's No 8, Fritz Lee, was sin-binned for a high tackle on Jean-Marc Doussain with Marques kicking the penalty.
Almost immediately, Parra replied to stretch back the hosts' lead to 23-15.
Clermont were struggling at the set-piece, though, and prop Thomas Domingo was yellow-carded after collapsing a scrum five yards from his own line, leaving Clermont with 13 players.
Their seven-man scrum could not handle the pressure and soon gave up a penalty try, with Marques converting to make it a one-point game.
Yet almost immediately, Toulouse's Fijian wing Semi Kunatani got himself sin-binned for trying to kick the ball out of Parra's hands - and the scrum-half made the visitors pay by landing his fourth penalty as Lee returned to the fray.
With both teams back to full strength, Florian Fritz kicked a monstrous penalty from inside his own half 10 minutes from time to make it 26-25, but Parra had the last word with his fifth penalty after Toulouse collapsed a maul.
