Clermont beat Toulouse to reclaim top spot

Fijian wing Alivereti Raka scored a pair of tries as Clermont beat 14-man Toulouse 32-23 on Sunday to return to the summit of the French Top 14.

Raka displayed blazing speed to twice burst through the Toulouse defence, while Morgan Parra knocked over 22 points with the boot to send Clermont above Racing 92 after a fifth straight win.

Gillian Galan crossed in both halves for Toulouse, but their cause was undermined by the 45th-minute dismissal of Australian flanker Tala Gray for a punch on Flip van der Merwe.

"The red card was the turning point," admitted Clermont centre Aurelien Rougerie. "Not everything was perfect but Toulouse are a good team.

"Being in first place doesn't mean much, we will keep our feet on the ground. We're not yet into the play-offs. We wanted to get our head above water after earlier disappointments and we've done that."

Back-rower Fritz Lee returned for Clermont in the only change made by coach Franck Azema, while Toulouse were without skipper Thierry Dusautoir and Luke McAlister.

Former England international Toby Flood endured a difficult start, losing goalkicking duties after missing two early penalties as Clermont moved 6-0 ahead with Parra slotting over twice.

Scrum-half David Mele, filling in for Sebastien Bezy after he was on Six Nations duty with France, took over from Flood and put Toulouse on the board midway through the first half.

Clermont then broke the game open with Parra adding another penalty before Raka broke free of two tacklers, running from inside his own half to touch down under the posts.

Both sides exchanged further penalties but Toulouse clawed their way back just before the break as Galan barrelled his way over after a rolling maul to leave them trailing 19-13.

However, Toulouse's hopes of ending their four-game winless run were dealt a devastating blow when Gray was shown a red card for lashing out at South African lock Van der Merwe.

Parra then knocked over another penalty to stretch the home side's lead, but Clermont were also reduced to 14 when Van der Merwe was sin-binned for collapsing a maul.

Toulouse again fought their way back with Galan going over for the second time in similar fashion, with Mele converting to cut the deficit to 22-20.

Clermont responded immediately though with Noa Nakaitaci releasing Raka down the side, the Fijian going through the gears to dot down for his second try and Parra restoring the two-score advantage.

Mele sent through a penalty to make in 29-23, but Parra replied with his sixth of the contest to help Clermont see out the remaining few minutes.

Earlier, Grenoble beat Brive 26-22 to snap a run of back-to-back home defeats.

Jonathan Wisniewski kicked 16 points to accompany tries from Stephen Setephano and Gio Aplon, but Brive salvaged a losing bonus point with a late penalty from Gaetan Germain.
Source :AFP