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M. Sanerivi (56'), I. Iashagashvili (66'), F. Gorrissen (79')
Tries
B. Jauneau (24'), G. Dzmanashvili (45')
A. Bouthier (56', 66', 80')
Conversions
H. Plummer (25', 46')
J. Cotarmanac'h (29', 36')
Penalties
H. Plummer (9', 14', 34', 61')
This game said something simple and awkward for ASM Clermont Auvergne: control isn’t the same as closure. They had the frame of the match for an hour, they had the scoreboard where they wanted it through Harry Plummer, and they had the defensive industry to make most of the collisions theirs. What they didn’t have was the finish, or the calm of the last two minutes. RC Vannes did.
The punchline is brutal for Clermont but entirely earned by Vannes’ refusal to let the gap breathe. Trailing for long stretches, Vannes never let it slip beyond arm’s length and kept dragging the game back to the gain line. Francisco Gorrissen was the one to plant the flag with a 79th-minute try, and Anthony Bouthier flipped the result with the nerviest kick on the field in the 80th. That wasn’t a smash-and-grab; it was the result of an afternoon spent staying in the fight.
Clermont’s plan was clear and, for a long time, effective: get up the park, take points, rinse and repeat. Plummer’s 16 points told you who was running the scoreboard. His control off the tee and a neat mix off the boot kept Vannes penned in and made pressure tangible. When Baptiste Jauneau and, after the break, Giorgi Dzmanashvili finished the two Clermont tries, it looked like the away side had the cushion they came for. The problem was what came next: a drift into exits and resets, and an attack that tightened rather than killing the contest.
Vannes changed the tempo off the bench and, crucially, tidied their set piece. Mills Sanerivi arrived and gave them accuracy at the lineout, then thundered over to light the fuse. Ioane Iashagashvili followed with impact at both ends — heavy traffic carries, 12 tackles, two offloads — and his try dragged Clermont back into the red zone treadmill. With Bouthier adding the twos, the gap shrank and the crowd at la Rabine felt a twist coming.
The shape of the numbers backs the eye test. Vannes had the ball and the field more often, Clermont were slicker for longer but coughed up too much in the second half. Vannes owned 57% possession and forced seven turnovers; Clermont conceded 21 of their own. That’s not game management, that’s leaving the door on the latch. And though Clermont’s defence was heroic on workload — Marcos Kremer, Killian Tixeront and Anthime Hemery all hit double figures — when your back row tops the tackle chart and you’re closing a one-score game away from home, you are inviting trouble.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The winning sequence distilled what Vannes had been hinting at: composure with the clock bleeding out. They didn’t chase the miracle off nine; they worked short, trusted their ruck clean and kept prodding until the angle appeared. Gorrissen picked his line and finished. Bouthier, who had been Vannes’ main source of momentum all day with 11 carries from the backfield, then nailed a pressured conversion from wide out. Small moments, high skill, big nerve.
There were individual duels that shaped the tone. Bouthier versus Clermont’s aerial game felt like a running conversation; he mostly won it and gave Vannes a platform. On the edge, Nathanaël Hulleu’s two breaks and 80 metres were the only consistent line-bending on either wing and forced Clermont to fold defenders around the corner, which in turn opened seams late. For Clermont, Plummer did more than kick — 12 carries and four defenders beaten spoke to a 10 trying to play both conductor and soloist — but the supporting cast didn’t find the extra punch. Even Bautista Delguy, sharp in scramble and at the jackal, was doing more fire-fighting than finishing by the last quarter.
Game management is where Clermont will feel the sting. Up seven with 20 to play, they needed two exits and a penalty to drag the air out of the place; instead they gave Vannes ball after ball and made a back-row change on 70 (Rob Leota for Tixeront) that didn’t shift the momentum. You can’t chalk that swing up to luck. It’s decision-making and composure, and it’s now two tight losses in a row after Bordeaux. Hosting Racing next week, they need tries, not just Plummer’s polish, and a sharper last 10.
For Vannes, the lesson is double-edged. The bottle is indisputable and the bench answered big questions, but they can’t live on grandstand finishes. They missed too many tackles and spent too much of the day chasing a kickable deficit. Still, given where they started the round and who they’ve been losing to, this is a real scalp after two straight defeats to Clermont. A trip to Lyon is no softer landing, but this felt like the moment they remembered how to close. The table won’t care that it came in the 79th minute. Nor should they.
