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Clermont crush poor Perpignan as La Rochelle leapfrog Toulouse
By Rob Lancaster
Leaders Clermont Auvergne eased to a bonus-point win over bottom club Perpignan in round 13 of the Top 14 season.
The clash between teams at opposite ends of the table was not quite as one-sided as perhaps expected, though Clermont still recorded a comfortable 37-16 triumph against opponents yet to register a league win this term.
Peter Betham, Wesley Fofana, Arthur Iturria and Peceli Yato all touched down for the visitors, scrum-half Greig Laidlaw adding all four conversions as well as three penalties.
La Rochelle are now up to second in the standings, moving above Toulouse - who host Toulon on Sunday - thanks to a 53-27 thrashing of Castres.
Pierre Aguillon and Marc Andreu both crossed twice in a resounding victory for the hosts, with fly-half Ihaia West landing five conversions and a pair of penalties to finish with a personal haul of 16 points.
Alexis Palisson scored two of his side's seven tries as Lyon ripped Agen apart, running out convincing 52-20 winners at Matmut Stadium.
Jonathan Wisniewski set up Palisson's first early in the second half having already set up hooker Mickael Ivaldi for a try before the break. The fly-half also booted 13 points before he was taken off just after the hour mark with the bonus point long secured.
Having played a starring role in the 19-6 win over Agen last time out, Argentine fly-half Nicolas Sanchez was once again pivotal as Stade Francais fought back to record a hard-fought 23-20 triumph over Grenoble.
The home side trailed 17-0 after just 21 minutes but Sanchez helped lead the recovery, Stade scoring 23 unanswered points. Gaetan Germain cut the gap to three with a penalty for Grenoble but was unable to convert a late attempt at the posts that would have drawn his side level.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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