RUGBY:FORGET MUNSTER and their Holy Grail, or even the All Blacks and their crusade to win a World Cup. The obsession to end all magnificent obsessions in rugby has surely been Clermont Auvergne's long, often painful and seemingly abortive search for their first Bouclier de Brennus. This story was akin to the Boston Red Sox's 86-year wait for their sixth World Series baseball title in 2004 and, similarly, it is probably worth a movie or at least one of those in-depth ESPN Classic documentaries.
The jinx on the Red Sox was called by some the “Curse of the Bambino” after its alleged beginning with the Red Sox’s sale of Babe Ruth to the rival Yankees in 1918. The spell or evil eye placed on Clermont never generated a moniker, but it must have felt like a curse to everyone associated with Association Sportive Montferrandaise Clermont Auvergne to give them their full title, aka Les Jaunards, given they seemed destined never to lay their hands on the mystical bouclier even once.
As signified by their blue and yellow colours and their home ground, they were founded in 1911 as a multi-sport club by Marcel Martin, for the benefit of the workers at the local tyre manufacturer, but despite being a first division club since 1925, Clermont were forever the popular and traditional underdog, always praised for their style of play, but never winning come springtime in Paris.
In all, they reached the final 10 times and lost the lot, culminating in three successive defeats in 2007, ’08 and ’09, becoming the cause celebre of the Auvergne region and the second favourite club of almost every rugby supporter in France.
Finally, the perennial bridesmaids broke through in their 100th year on May 29th when beating Perpignan 19-6 at the Stade de France, avenging the 22-13 defeat the year before to the same Catalan opposition, thanks to the only try of the game – a close-range effort by Fijian wing Napolioni Nalaga – and three penalties and a conversion by scrumhalf Morgan Parra and a drop goal by fullback Anthony Floch. It wasn’t pretty, but it mattered not a whit.
“Bloody hell, it was time. We worked so hard,” said Clermont number eight Elvis Vermeulen, who had played in each of the three previous final defeats against Stade Français, Toulouse and Perpignan.
Clermont coach Vern Cotter, his eyes filled with tears, added: “It was three years of sheer frustration but every year we tried to come back stronger. Full credit to the players. We are going to have a good night.”
Make that months.
The fete, or festival, is still going on actually. Every week since that final, all the towns who’ve had their traditional summer fete (imagine St Patrick’s Day, running for days), along with every club in the region, had the bouclier in attendance, with seemingly everybody in the region determined to touch the trophy with a semi-religious zeal.
Engaged couples even asked for the bouclier to be on display at their wedding day, although the club drew a line at this, maintaining that it would dishonour such sacred occasions.
This is industrial, volcanic country, and rugby mad country, for whom the club (all the more so given its umbilical ties to the Michelin tyre factory) is the greatest manifestation of Clermont-Ferrand and its surrounding Auvergne region.
One supporter who passed away a couple of weeks before the final and who had attended the previous eight losing finals since 1970, requested that his mobile phone be buried with him. Sure enough, his friends rang the mobile to relay news of Clermont’s win so that he could rest easily! Such were the tens of thousands awaiting the squad when they returned the day after the final that they had to stop their train fully ten kilometres outside the town and take coaches into the main square, Place de Jaude.
Along the way, the pressure to finally win the Bouclier undoubtedly weighed too heavily on them. Their former scrumhalf Pierre Mignoni has since admitted as much, and that he should have moved on sooner.
He recalled the example of his car being stopped at traffic lights one day in Clermont in the week of the losing 2008 final. A supporter sprang form the car in front, jumped on Mignoni’s car, and started screaming at the scrumhalf, imploring him to make sure the team beat Stade Français the following Saturday, and telling him they simply had to win.
Undoubtedly nursing a hangover from last summer’s triumph, and perhaps also struggling to readjust to life as champions without their annual obsession, they have trundled along in mid-table, winning all seven of their home matches and, after winning their second away game at financially troubled Bourgoin, having lost their last six on the road.
Things reached something of a head a few weeks ago with a desultory 22-14 defeat away to newly promoted La Rochelle, when club president Rene Fontes came to the dressingroom afterwards and talked to the players at length about their responsibilities to the club and their form.
It was time to stop living off last May’s triumph.
Last time out, they were back to something like their old selves, narky and hugely aggressive in a weather-affected set-to with leaders Toulouse, ending their unbeaten eight game run with a 32-25 victory. Remarkably, Clermont have now won nine of their last 12 meetings with Toulouse.
But a la his good friend Guy Noves at Toulouse, Cotter (now in his fifth season as head coach at Clermont) knows how to navigate his team through the tortuously demanding French season, which starts in August and ends on the final Saturday in May (previously it could be third weekend in June).
As much as ever, if not more so, he has been rotating his powerful squad from week to week. This season, Clermont have been like a big engine gradually cranking up through the gears.
Next season it looks as if they will be further strengthening their squad by signing the ex-Leicester and French hooker Benjamin Kayser from Stade Français, the Scarlets’ ex-All Blacks centre Regan King, the Ospreys, Wales and Lions fullback Lee Byrne and the ex-Crusaders outhalf Cameron McIntyre from Castres, while the All Blacks prop Neemia Tialata was in Clermont with his wife last week discussing the possibility of joining them.
All in all, this is a club that looks set to stay at the top of French rugby for years to come. Such is the conveyor belt of talent coming through that last season they became the first French club in history to win the Top 14, the espoirs (under-23) title and the crabos (under-19) title.
Where before they were almost totally backed by Michelin financially, now they possess one of the biggest budgets in French rugby, thanks primarily to the greater spread of club sponsors.
The renovation of the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin has almost been completed, (raising its capacity to 16,245), with all four corners of the grounds now closed, and this has made it as atmospheric and noisy a ground as any in French club rugby.
But still it’s not big enough, with every home game a sell-out. Plans are afoot for the local authorities to build a 32,000 football stadium which, ala Toulouse, the rugby club could share with Clermont Foot Auvergne, who are in Ligue 2, by using it for their bigger matches.
The stadium has already been designed and the project, which is being supported by a mixture of public and private money, is supported by the region’s deputy mayor and sports director, Christine Rougerie, who is mother of the club’s captain Aurelien Rougerie and was herself a famous French basketball player (his father, Jacques, played for Clermont and once for France).
Next year will be their centenary, and Clermont want to mark it in style; ideally with the H Cup. Having conquered France, and removed a huge monkey from their backs, Europe is now their domain. “When you want something so badly like we did, and you get it, it’s a great satisfaction,” said Fontes. “But we want to do more. Now we want to improve in Europe.”
“We still have big things to do here,” said Cotter earlier this season after signing another contract extension. “I made my decision right after the final. We want to stay here for many years. Winning the Bouclier de Brennus will take a terrible weight off our shoulders. We are still very hungry and now I can tell you it will be everything for Europe (“ce sera tout pour l’Europe”). I will phone my good friend Guy Noves and ask him to win the championship and to leave us the H Cup.”
More contented nowadays maybe, but Clermont are far from sated.
