We love these weekends, but it shouldn’t be like that every time. Barely recovered from our emotions after a three-hour match between Biarritz Olympique and Aviron Bayonnais, it was necessary for the UBB and ASM, teams who played the Top 14 play-offs, to start their meeting with a bang. As in Aguiléra, the Chaban Delmas stadium had found colors, faces and cries of supporters. He believed that the Bordeaux neophytes, who reached the first final phase of their history, would score a try after only forty seconds, a refocusing kick from Cameron Woki (yes yes) and a super fast Cordero. But the Argentine lost the ball and Clermont went the other way.
UBB Clermont: Bordelais showered at the entrance
Two minutes later, the Jaunards knew the same hope not materialized, with a nice cross at the foot of Lopez following a breakthrough by Matsushima. However, the pass was not controlled in the air by Alexandre Fischer. On the other hand, on the same wing, a few minutes later, Penaud was not trembling and was slipping back into the Bordeaux defense. Undoubtedly faster than expected for the men of Christophe Urios, the experienced finals, the ASM established its domination after the opening of the scoring. Lots of movement, intensity, and more success than the Girondins, who did not have the ball, suffered, feverishly. Without panicking, UBB recovered possession, but it still lacked the realization.
The tension of the event mingled with the madness of the two teams, and we had the right to incessant turnovers but also a lot of waste and mistakes while it was still very hot in Bordeaux. Jalibert converted a first penalty that came logically after a Bordeaux domination (24e, 3-7). Always crazier, the scenario of the match wrote an incredible new line: Buros, deceived by a rebound from Clermont, suffered the pressure of Penaud, lost the ball which bounced in the hands of Iturria who spun into the in-goal, but Lucu saved his family by making him lose control of the leather (31e)! The UBB miraculous, but the UBB not resigned. In the process, Lucu started on the counter attack and pressed Matsushima, penalized. Jalibert operated the junction (36e, 6-7). The locals approached the end shortly after, with a crazy cavalcade of Cordero, stranded five meters from the line, in touch.
UBB Clermont: A terribly tense second half
Of course, you had to be innocent to think ASM was going to get away with this. Fourcade lobbed his jumpers, Maynadier recovered the ball and plunged into the in-goal. UBB took the advantage, quite logically, just before the break (38e, 13-7). After the locker room, Clermont had to start by putting things back in order by regaining control of the ball. Parra rewarded the small territorial domination of his own (45e, 13-10). Carried by the crowd of Chaban, Jalibert gave again a very small mattress in advance (50e, 16-10) after a good streak in Bordeaux. Insanely clean on shooting for many weeks, Morgan Parra again closed the gap directly after (54e, 16-13). Perhaps it was a sign, but Jalibert was still responding to an action where the UBB never touched the ball, with a scratch from Tameifuna (59e, 19-13).
In this second half in the form of a cross chased, Clermont replied with great pressure close to the in-goal of the UBB, but only collected three points from Parra’s boot (62e, 19-16). We thought it was gone, but madness has returned to the banks of the Garonne. After a superb Clermont sequence of two minutes, Tameifuna came to scratch a very important ball, Lucu cleared as far as possible, and the Bordeaux people went to put pressure on the fallout, to obtain the penalty, again almost without having had the ball in the hands (66e, 22-16). Clermont had not resigned himself, continued to push, but the UBB now had a Tameifuna in pincer mode and did not let anything go. With the ball this time, Bordeaux crowned its success just after, thanks to a big advance of a maul. A difficult penalty, but decisive for Jalibert (77e, 25-16), which made the audience explode.
UBB Clermont: Player evaluation
In this meeting without any downtime, with enormous impacts, the powerful players were celebrating. We think of Peceli Yato or Fritz Lee near Clermont, who launched their large compasses like Alivereti Raka or George Moala, even if they were sometimes well thwarted. The evaluation is similar among Girondins, because we have seen Rémi Lamerat a lot to move forward and tackle, just like Cameron woki or Cyril Cazeaux. In a different style, but no less ubiquitous, Maxime Lucu was an extremely clean scrum-half in his releases and a conqueror on his attempts, with breakthroughs and formidable defense as usual. Matthieu jalibert, he experienced a little more difficulty entering his match, with more waste than usual, but we found him fully concerned in key moments and very close to killing the match ten minutes from the term.
The fight was very fierce, the entrants also made a lot of differences, especially on the Bordeaux side, with three decisive scrapings of I’m Tameifuna and a superb behavior ofAlexandre Roumat. It was harder for the Clermont replacements, with a Peter Betham very messy or a Jacobus Van Tonder too neutral.
ASM loses Franck Azéma, and ends his season in play-offs, an additional victim of Christophe Urios who wins almost everywhere he goes. The “We’re in semis!” Rained in Chaban in the last minutes, confirmed the victory of the premises after this crazy meeting. Crazy like the year 2021 of UBB, very interesting and enticing. Falling in the Champions Cup halfway against Toulouse but lessened by the covid, Bordeaux will return to the Stade in Lille in seven days. For a perhaps different outcome.
Mathéo RONDEAU
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