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No English team has won a Heineken Cup semi-final at Twickenham Stadium and Saracens will have to try to break that duck against a side lining up for their third successive stab at trying to reach the final. - 23/04/2014 16:27
No English team has won a Heineken Cup semi-final at Twickenham Stadium and Saracens will have to try to break that duck against a side lining up for their third successive stab at trying to reach the final.
ASM Clermont Auvergne went all the way to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin last year before falling foul of the legendary Heineken Cup hoodoo that dictates no team will remain unbeaten in the tournament. They just happened to pick the final to lose their first game.
The Heineken Cup has become akin to the Holy Grail for Clermont in recent years and Aurelien Rougerie's men will be looking to send-off their Kiwi coach Vern Cotter with the ultimate trophy on his coaching cv. There will be similar motivation for Saracens to steer their skipper Steve Borthwick into a Heineken Cup final in his last season at the club
Under Cotter, who will become the Scottish national coach this summer, Clermont have won the Top 14 and the Amlin Challenge Cup, but the big one has eluded them to date. Winning at home has become a habit, but on the road Clermont can be vulnerable.
That will give Mark McCall and his team hope they can upset the odds and make it third time lucky for themselves at this stage, as well as for an English team at Twickenham. They were beaten at the home of English rugby by Toulon last season, while London Irish fell to Toulouse at the venue in 2008.
French teams have ended Sarries' European adventures in the past two seasons – Clermont were 22-3 victors at Vicarage Road in the quarter-finals in 2012 and Toulon won 24-12 in last year's semi-final – and they were beaten twice in the Pool stages by Toulouse.
Even so, the Aviva Premiership leaders snuck through to the quarter-finals as eighth seeds after finishing runners-up to Toulouse and then went to Belfast to confront the unbeaten Ulstermen at their enhanced Ravenhill ground. Two tries from England wing Chris Ashton steered Sarries to a 17-15 after home full back Jared Payne had been sent-off in the opening minutes
Clermont had to pick themselves up from a first round defeat in Paris against Racing Metro '92 before emerging top of Pool 4 with 24 points. That earned them a home quarter-final against Leicester Tigers, which they won 22-16 to help extend their remarkable home record to 76 wins on the trot.
In their win over the Tigers, as in last season's final defeat to Toulon in Dublin, Clermont were guilty of going off the boil in the second half. That will give the Saracens heart and a real target following their recent run of red hot form which has seen them add the scalps of top English rivals Northampton Saints and Harlequins to that of Ulster.
While Ashton, one try short of the Heineken Cup record for a season of 10, remains an obvious threat, the rest of the back three, Alex Goode and Dave Strettle, also pack a punch and outside half Owen Farrell knows all about kicking crucial points at Twickenham for club and country.
An away defeat to Brive is the only loss Clermont have suffered in their last five outings, but a home 22-16 triumph over Top 14 title rivals Toulon will give them a huge boost heading into this clash.
Match Notes
- The clubs have met three times in the tournament with Clermont triumphing on each occasion and scoring a total of eight tries to two in the process.
- In each of the three games, Clermont have prevailed by at least 10 points.
- Saracens have lost their two previous semi-finals in this tournament, in 2008 and 2013. On both occasion, they had home country advantage.
- This is Clermont’s third successive Heineken Cup semi-final. They lost their first to Leinster in 2012 before defeating Munster in Montpellier last season.
- Saracens’ Kelly Brown has made 62 tackles in this season’s campaign and is yet to miss a single one. No other player has made more than 35 and maintained a 100% success rate.
- Saracens have averaged more points (33.4), tries (4.6) and clean breaks (9.1) per game than any other club this season.
- Chris Ashton is the top try scorer in the tournament this season with nine while Clermont’s Naipolioni Nalaga, is second on the list with five. The tournament individual record of 10 tries in a season was set by Sebastien Carrat of Brive in 1996/97.
- Clermont have the strongest scrum in the tournament so far, winning 97% of ball on their own put-in.
- Last season’s defeated finalists have also averaged more possession per game (19 mins 15 secs) than any other club and have made the most offloads (17 per game).
- Sitiveni Sivivatu and Ashton are joint top of the clean breaks (14) chart this season, with Sivivatu also joint top of the offloads ranking (18).
Chris Ashton wrote himself into the record books with two tries to take his season's European tally to 11 as he led the Saracens charge into their first Heineken Cup final. - 26/04/2014 17:01
Chris Ashton wrote himself into the record books with two tries to take his season’s European tally to 11 as he led the Saracens charge into their first Heineken Cup final.
It ws a day of records for the English club as they eclipsed Leicester Tigers and London Wasps’ previous highest score in a semi-final of 37 points and also took the biggest winning margin up to 40 points from Toulouse’ previous best of 27.
The England wing sped clear in the eighth minute to give the Aviva Premiership leaders the perfect start against French giants ASM Clermont Auvergne with a try that drew him level with former Brive flyer Sebastien Carrat on 10 tries in one season. Then he pounced again in the second half to make the recod his own.
Carrat had held the recod on his own for 17 years, but there was no stopping Ashton at Twickenham and he stil has the Heineken Cup final to go in Cardiff on Saturday, 24 May. Where he led in the first half, so Owen Farrell followed in a first half that also included a penalty try.
Clermont were hoping to make it two successive finals, but that early try, and the penalty try in the unlucky 13th minute, knocked them completley out of their stride. They had a 24th minute try by centre Benson Stanley ruled out for crossing earlier in the move and in the absenece of skipper Aurelien Rougerie they struggled to find ways to break down the Sarries defence.
As for Saracens, it was third time lucky for them at the semi-final stage and made up for their bitter disappointment of losing at the same venue at the same stage last year.
Alex Goode added a near touchline conversion to Ashton’s opening score and then easily converted a penalty try awarded by Welsh referee Nigel Owens after he spotted Brock James deliberately knocking a high ball out of play in his own dead ball area. James received a yellow card to leave his side trailing 14-3 with 14 men.
The Saracens back row made life increasingly uncomfortable for the Frenchmen at the breakdown and Jacques Burger led the tackle count as every alleyway was blocked for Clermont. Morgan Parra added a econd penalty before half time, but Saracens added a third try before the break when an inside pass from Ashton in the Clrmont 22 went forward off Farrell’s knee and he picked up to cross for another try.
Goode added another conversion and then kicked a penalty to make it 24-6 to Saracens at the break and put them on the road to notching a first win over Clermont in four attenpts in the tournament.
The second half was a stalemate until Argentine centre Marcelo Bosh laned a penalty off the half-way line in the 54th minute and then Ashton capitalised on an aggressive tackle by Farrell that forced Ti’i Paulo to lose the ball as he hackd on twice to score his record breaking try.
Goode was unable to convert that try, but the England full back ended with a flourish as he added the extras to two more tries from replacements Chris Wyles and Tim Steather a Saracens romped into the Heineken Cup final.
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