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Raka grabs hat-trick as Clermont bounce back in style
By Alex Fisher
Reigning Top 14 champions Clermont Auvergne bounced back from their thrashing at La Rochelle last weekend with a 62-6 victory over bottom club Brive on Saturday.
After lifting the 2016-17 crown three months ago it has been a mixed start for Clermont this season with only one win – against Toulon – from their opening three matches.
They were humbled 51-20 by La Rochelle last time out but Franck Azema got just the reaction he would have been looking for as they eased to a bonus-point win.
The triumph – inspired by a hat-trick from Alivereti Raka – lifted Clermont back towards the top of the fledgling table but just shy of the top six.
Montpellier, who play Toulon on Sunday, continue to lead the way but Lyon and La Rochelle are both just one point adrift after recording their third wins of the season.
A comprehensive 49-14 victory over Bordeaux Begles gives Lyon the slight edge on points difference, Lionel Beauxis starring with 24 points of his own at the Stade Gerland.
La Rochelle, who topped the end of season table in 2016-17 before losing in the semi-finals, look well poised again after a narrow 20-15 success over Agen.
It was a match dominated by La Rochelle but a solid defensive display from Agen denied their opponents the bonus point that would have taken them level with Montpellier.
Toulouse are a further point back after they ran in seven tries on their way to a 53-17 hammering of Stade Francais – Thomas Ramos crossing twice and Cheslin Kolbe continuing his rich vein of form.
Just below the revitalised Clermont are Pau after their 28-13 triumph over Castres Olympique, a Watisoni Votu double helping secure back-to-back wins for Simon Mannix's side.
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Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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