Clermont survive a scare
Clermont extended their unbeaten run on home soil to 45 fixtures after they held of Racing Metro's fightback to win 13-12.
Last Updated: 10/09/12 6:43am
Clermont extended their unbeaten run on home soil to 45 fixtures after they held of Racing Metro's fightback to win 13-12 at Marcel Michelin.
Racing had been leading 12-7 up with 24 minutes left but could not hold on for what would have been a monumental Top 14 success.
Instead, Morgan Parra kicked two penalties to move the star-studded home side up to fourth in the table behind Toulon, Biarritz and Toulouse.
Clermont had come out of the blocks with real intent as Naipolioni Nalaga powered over in the left-hand corner after just three minutes, with France scrum-half Parra converting nicely.
But the Parisians hit back, with impressive visiting full-back Benjamin Dambielle punishing the hosts with the first of his three penalties.
Capitalised
Another penalty from Dambielle on 29 minutes meant it was 7-6 going into the break - with Racing sensing a possible first victory on Clermont soil.
And with flanker Julien Bardy sent to the sin-bin three minutes into the second-half, fly-half Dambielle capitalised with his third penalty
Fabrice Estebanez then added a long-range drop on 56 minutes to crank up the pressure on the hosts.
But Clermont responded brilliantly as Racing coughed up two Parra penalties which saw the home side prevail.
