Clermont 40-30 Leicester

Clermont dominated their Heineken Cup clash with Leicester

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Sunday, 13, Dec 2009 04:28

By Matt Hallam.

Leicester Tigers were beaten 40-30 at Clermont in their pool three Heineken Cup match.

Last season's Heineken Cup runners-up were outplayed by the French side for a majority of the game and although they mounted a spirited comeback in the closing stages they were unable to pull the scores level.

The win leaves leaves Clermont top of pool three and leaves Leicester with it all to do in the return fixture at Welford Road next week.

Brock James gave Clermont the lead within two minutes of the kick off when he converted an early penalty.

Leicester's Toby Flood levelled with a penalty of his own but Clermont took command of the game when Lapandry exchanged passes with Jason White on the left before gliding over the line.

Flood kept Leicester in touching distance with another penalty but the French side increased their lead soon after when Napolini Vonowale-Nalaga stepped in of the wing and powered through Aaron Mauger's tackle before scoring his sides second try.

Leicester were unable to pose any threat to Clermont's backline and although Flood kicked a third penalty, his effort was effectively cancelled out when Anthony Flock sent a drop kick over before Nalaga scored his second try on the stroke of half-time.

There was no improvement from Leicester in the second-half and they found themselves 26 points adrift as the hour mark approached when Aurelien Rougerie picked up on Scott Hamilton's mistake in midlfield and offloaded to Morgan Parra to slide over the line.

Leicester showed impressive spirit to mount a comeback in the final 10 minutes though with Anthony Allen scoring his side's first try before Lote Tiqiri powered down the right wing and released Flood to score underneath the posts.

Clermont reacted brilliantly to restore their commanding lead through Jamie Cudmore and although a mistake from James allowed Jeremy Staunton to score another try under the posts Clermont held on for the win.