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Reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster will be looking for revenge after their narrow defeat to tournament favourites
Reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster will be looking for revenge after their narrow defeat to tournament favourites, ASM Clermont Auvergne, on French soil last weekend.
The three-time champions suffered a 15-12 defeat at Stade Marcel Michelin in the heavyweight clash in the last round.
The Irish province, who are now trailing by five points in the Pool, surrendered their 17-match unbeaten tournament run and know they need a victory in the home leg at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The Dubliners know defeat would probably end their defence of the title which they have lifted in three of the last four years and seen them dubbed the best side the tournament has ever seen.
Clermont, who have never reached the final of this tournament, are most people’s favourites to finally lift the Heineken Cup this season and they proved themselves worthy of the backing in their victory over Leinster.
A win for the French Top 14 side would put them in the driving seat of the Pool and would almost certainly see them get the added advantage of a home quarter-final place.
Clermont are on the verge of their fifth quarter-final place but have never reached the final of the Heineken Cup. Leinster have won three of the last four Heineken Cup finals.
Match Facts
• Nobody has made more offloads than Clermont’s Aurelien Rougerie this season, the centre has made nine to date.
• Jamie Heaslip has made 40 tackles (0 missed) so far this season, more than anybody else.
• Clermont have averaged a team gain of 565 metres per match so far, the most in the tournament.
• This weekend sees the sixth meeting between these teams since 2010. The Irish outfit have won three of those and lost the other two.
Enorme coup double pour l'ASM : en s'imposant sur la pelouse du Leinster (28-21)
Leinster suffered a major setback to the defence of their Heineken Cup crown when they suffered a second defeat in a week to ASM Clermont Auvergne, going down 28-21 and having to settle for a losing bonus point yet again.
The three-times Heineken Cup champions lost the second leg of their double-header against the crack French side in front of a bumper 48,964 crowd at the Aviva Stadium.
Morgan Parra, Clermont’s French international scrum-half, enjoyed an imperious afternoon with the boot, missing only one shot at goal and finishing with a personal points tally of 23 points.
But the Dubliners managed a losing bonus point with a late try by replacement wing Fergus McFadden in the last minute to keep their slim hopes of a quarter-final place alive.
The Irish province suffered a 15-12 defeat to the French side and saw their 17-match unbeaten run in Europe end in the first game between the two sides in France last Sunday.
But this was another titanic tussle of Test match standard between two of the best sides in Europe and Clermont are now in pole position for a quarter-final place and are still unbeaten in this Pool.
Scrum-half Parra gave the French side an early lead with a penalty before Leinster lost hooker Richard Strauss with a nasty looking knee injury early in the opening exchanges.
Fly-half Jonathan Sexton replied with a penalty of his own to level the scores midway through the first half before Parra pushed the visitors back ahead with his second penalty.
Parra reclaimed the lead with his third penalty and French centre Wesley Fofana barged over from short-range to score his seventh try in the Heineken Cup when the visitors broke the home side’s defence for the first time.
Parra added the conversion to make it 16-6 to Clermont at half-time before he and Sexton swapped penalties just after the break before Sean O’Brien was shown the yellow card for a late tackle on wing Sitiveni Sivivatu.
Clermont took full advantage of their extra man with Parra adding two more penalties, before Shane Jennings and McFadden’s vital try kept Leinster’s slim hopes of a quarter-final place alive.
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