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G. Cramont (17'), E. Capilla (27'), du Preez (30'), B. Tilloles (34'), M. Tuilagi (57'), M. Carreras (64'), F. Bosch (74')
Tries
H. Plummer (39', 39'), A. Hemery (43'), J. Bouraux (49')
du Preez (18', 35', 64', 74')
Conversions
H. Plummer (40', 40', 43', 43', 50', 50')
du Preez (25')
Penalties
H. Plummer (21', 21')
Bayonne didn’t so much control this as outlast it. They spent long stretches without the ball, were dragged into a track meet they probably didn’t want after last week’s mess at Pau, and still found enough sharp edges to win it. That tells you two things: their strike runners are live, and their breakdown work can change a game even when the set piece misfires.
Clermont will look at the possession, the territory and a dominant lineout and wonder how they left with nothing. The answer is discipline and security: too many turnovers when the gain line was there to be taken, and a red card that flipped the contest right when they had Bayonne by the throat.
The numbers sketch the shape of it. Clermont owned 56% possession and took 15 of 17 lineouts, but coughed up 18 turnovers to Bayonne’s eight and played the last half-hour with 14 after Marcos Kremer walked. Bayonne made a huge 187 tackles, yet pinched eight turnovers and turned the few red-zone visits they earned into points. Seven tries off 44% ball is ruthless.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
RED CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
If there was a hinge, it was discipline at the end of the first half and the start of the second. Bayonne were cruising at 27-6 when Rodrigo Bruni was binned; Clermont pounced, and Harry Plummer struck twice before the break to drag it back to a one-score game. Straight after half-time Anthime Hemery punched through and Clermont’s bench added pace with Justin Bouraux finishing soon after. At that point Bayonne were stretched, the tackle count was ballooning and Clermont had a grip on the gain line.
Then came Kremer’s red on 52 minutes. From there Bayonne stopped absorbing and started choosing where to fight. They went to direct punch and quick edges rather than long-phase attrition, and the game changed. Manu Tuilagi hit a hard unders line for a momentum score, Mateo Carreras finished off broken field when Clermont’s spacing frayed, and the clincher was classic Bayonne: a composed maul for Facundo Bosch despite a sketchy evening at the lineout.
Plenty of Bayonnais earned their pay. Robert du Preez steered the mess with a calm boot and 16 points, but it was his defence that mattered most — 17 tackles from your 10 on a night like this is leadership. Esteban Capilla was everywhere (10 carries, 45 metres, 17 tackles) and gave them the first-half heft to build that 27-6 platform. Outside, Sireli Maqala sliced Clermont three times clean and looked the most dangerous carrier on the park in traffic, while Tom Spring and Cheikh Tiberghien kept the backfield honest and asked questions with ball in hand. The two hookers told their own story: Guillaume Cramont and Bosch both dotted down, a reminder that even with only 73% lineout success Bayonne’s maul remains a weapon in the 22.
Clermont weren’t short of contributors. Plummer sparked the comeback and kicked tidy; Yerim Fall was their best outlet wide; and the pack gave them launch — Thibaud Lanen carried hard, the lineout barely missed. But 18 turnovers is a season’s worth of regret squeezed into one night. Too many jackal opportunities presented to blue jerseys, too many post-contact spills when they had front-foot ball. Add Kremer’s card and it becomes the same refrain their pre-season hinted at: when the game tilts, their management frays.
Does eight points flatter Bayonne? Not really. Seven tries to four is a fair reflection of edge and execution. Clermont’s volume masked their looseness; Bayonne’s economy punished it. That said, Bayonne won this while tackling themselves to a standstill and leaking 38 — there’s still a defensive reset to be done after Pau, and the lineout can’t afford to live in the low 70s against better drill-sides. The good news for them is at nine: with the injury cloud hovering over the position in September, Baptiste Tilloles delivered tempo and a scorer’s instinct.
For Clermont, the takeaway is brutal but simple: the set piece is in a good place, the backs can hurt teams, but unless they fix the breakdown and the card count, they’ll keep giving away matches they’re otherwise equipped to win. For Bayonne, it’s proof they can ride a chaotic game and still find clinicality. Now comes the harder bit — turn the tackle volume down, tidy the lineout, keep the breakdown heat — and make this less of a survival act and more of a template.
