Clermont too strong for Munster

Clermont showed all their class to power to a 26-19 win over Munster at the Stade Marcel Michelin and stay in pole position in Pool One.

After a flying start from Munster, Clermont weathered the storm, scoring first-half tries through Damien Chouly and a sensational individual effort from Noa Nakaitaci.

They continued to dominate in the second half, with Chouly scoring his second as Clermont took control.

Munster showed a lot of spirit to secure a losing bonus point thanks to a late interception try from Duncan Casey followed by an Ian Keatley penalty with the final kick of the game.

After last week's defeat at Thomond Park, Munster came out all guns blazing, and Clermont were barely hanging on.

First Aurélien Rougerie was isolated at a breakdown and Keatley gave his side a dream start with a penalty from inside his own half.

Then on eight minutes Munster almost went over only for Rougerie to save his side. With a huge overlap, Rougerie produced a huge tackle on Andrew Smith, knocking the ball free in the process.

That led to a scrum, where Munster earned a penalty, allowing Keatley to double the lead, although the visitors had nearly scored following the scrum only for Lopez to scrag JJ Hanrahan as he found himself in space on the right.

It was all Munster, clearly up for it after last week's loss, but Clermont finally settled into a rhythm and scored a fantastic first try through skipper Chouly.

Keeping the ball alive, starting with a lovely chip and gather from Lopez, Chouly was able to stretch over and dot down.

Despite the return of Morgan Parra, Lopez kept the kicking duties but his first effort was pulled just wide, and Munster led 6-5.

Clermont did take the lead just before the half-hour when Munster failed to roll away from a ruck as the home side started make ground, Lopez making no mistake this time with the penalty from the right.

On the stroke of half-time Clermont almost had their second try when Rougerie went clean through, but he couldn't find Wesley Fofana who was unmarked inside him.

Les Jaunards kept the ball alive however, and when it came back across, Nakaitaci had some open space in front of him and shimmied his way clean through for a magnificent individual score. Lopez converted to make it 15-6 to the home side at the break.

Munster needed a quick start to the second half, and got an early penalty when Sébastien Vahaamahina was penalised for playing the ball off his feet at a ruck, Keatley slotting it from 40 metres out.

That was cancelled out immediately though by a Lopez penalty which also saw Jones sin-binned. The Clermont fly-half had chipped through and was clearly tripped by the Munster full-back, who was rightly carded as a result.

And having struggled early on in the set-piece, Clermont started to get the upper hand in the scrum, however Lopez couldn't take advantage when he pulled a second kick of the evening wide.

As a result, Munster were able to survive their period a man down conceding just the three points from the initial offence, staying in touch with 25 minutes left in the game.

Still, Munster were struggling to cross the gainline, as they had last week, with one huge hit from Jamie Cudmore on Paul O'Connell epitomising the dominance that Clermont were starting to build.

The Canadian second row earned another penalty a couple of minutes later that Lopez slotted from just inside the Munster half to make it 21-9.

Clermont almost had their third try immediately after when replacement Raphaël Chaume, and then Fritz Lee burst clean through.

The number eight fed Vahaamahina who was hauled down just short of the line. When the ball was recycled, Clermont had a huge overlap on the left, but Lee knocked on with the line at his mercy and the chance went begging.

The third try did eventually come when Lopez produced a lovely pinpoint kick towards Chouly on the right. The back row had enough power to crash past Simon Zebo's tackle and score his second.

At that point it looked as though Clermont might grab a bonus point, but it was Munster who fought back. With six minutes to go they finally got over for the first time, as Lee's attempted pop pass in his own 22 went straight to Casey.

Keatley's conversion brought the visitors back to within ten, and on the final play he held his nerve to slot a fourth penalty, again after an infringement from Lee, and keep Munster's quarter-final hopes alive with an unlikely bonus point.

All that leaves Clermont sitting top of the pool on 14 points, one clear of Saracens, who will visit the Marcel Michelin in the final round.

Munster, meanwhile, have ten points, and will need to win their two remaining games, including a trip to Barnet to take on Sarries next up.

The scorers:

For Clermont:
Tries: Chouly 2, Nakaitaci
Con: Lopez
Pens: Lopez 3

For Munster:
Try: Casey
Con: Keatley
Pens: Keatley 4
Yellow Card: Jones

The teams:

Clermont: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Noa Nakaitaci, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Fritz Lee, 7 Alexandre Lapandry, 6 Damien Chouly (c), 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Davit Zirakashvili, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo
Replacements: 16 John Ulugia, 17 Raphael Chaume, 18 Clément Ric, 19 Julien Pierre, 20 Julien Bardy, 21 Ludovic Radoslavjevic , 22 Brock James, 23 Benson Stanley

Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Andrew Smith, 12 JJ Hanrahan, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Tommy O'Donnell, 6 Peter O'Mahony (c), 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Dave Foley, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Duncan Casey, 1 John Ryan
Replacements: 16 Kevin O'Byrne, 17 Eusebio Guinazu, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Robin Copeland, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Denis Hurley, 23 Johne Murphy

Venue: Stade Marcel Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)