Top 14 club-by-club 2020-21 Season Preview: Clermont
Clermont’s coronavirus-curtailed Top 14 season was far from one for the record books. But what will the 2020-21 season – one they will enter without president Eric de Cromieres, who died in July after a battle with cancer – look like?
Key signing
Kotaro Matsushima. Scoring five tries at the 2019 Rugby World Cup will get you noticed, and Clermont wasted little time making Matsushima their big signing. Sebastien Bezy’s switch from Toulouse to challenge Morgan Parra for the 9 shirt is also interesting.
Key departure
Nick Abendanon. You could pick any one of the 18 players leaving Clermont this summer. A sharp dip in international player compensation from the FFR has forced Clermont to clip its spending wings, as has the need to slash overseas player numbers. Quite the coup, too, for ProD2 side Vannes to pick up the experienced fullback.
They say
“We’ve got a younger and younger group, so we’ve got fewer leaders. We’ve lost Chouly, Rougerie, Kayser, Zirakashvili, Abendanon … leaders in the dressing room and on the pitch over the last two years. It’s going to be important that players take these positions and responsibilities. We need leaders to emerge. To aim high in this sport, you need a mindset, you need to be competitive, but you also need leaders” (Morgan Parra, La Montagne)
We say
Despite what the little general has to say about the experience drain of the past two years – and he’s not wrong – there’s plenty to draw on in Clermont’s squad for the 2020/21 season. Rabah Slimani, Fritz Lee, Arthur Iturria, Wesley Fofana, Sebastien Vahaamahina, Parra himself, and Camille Lopez are the foundations and first few floors of a formidable leadership group.
Nor is Clermont unique in trading in old heads for younger models. It’s a common thread among Top 14 sides right now, as they seek to rebalance their books with a noticeably smaller bottom line in the wages column. On paper, the signings look smart. Sebastien Bezy is good enough to push Parra all the way for the nine shirt, while Kotaro Matsushima adds some pace to an already not-so-slouchy backs division.
French 7s star Tavite Veredamu, brought in as short-term cover for the injured Peceli Yato, should offer some explosive options off the back of the scrum.
Coaching change at Clermont
There’s a key change in the coaching staff, too. Franck Azema remains in charge, but he is taking a strategic step back on the training pitch. He’s leaving the day-to-day running around to Bernard Goutta (forwards), Didier Bès (scrum), Xavier Sadourny (attack) and the returning Benson Stanley (defence). Expect to see him pacing philosophically on the sidelines on matchdays, however.
It makes sense. The coaching looked in need of a revamp. Azema was looking done-in more often than not. When the 2019/20 season was abandoned after 17 of 26 regular season rounds, Clermont were a middling sixth in what had been a humdrum season. It’s not as if they could blame the World Cup, either, for their indifferent season. While 11 players were in Japan, Clermont were running along nicely, and were a solid fourth after eight rounds of the Top 14 – close to a third of the domestic season.
But the expected push-on when their international stars returned failed to materialise, and Clermont stuttered in the Top 14 as they put their eggs in their desperately wanted European basket. They duly reached the Champions Cup quarter-finals comfortably enough, and are at home to Racing in the quarter finals in September – but leaked tries domestically.
Strong on paper
Yes, a sixth-place finish ensures a Champions Cup place next season, regardless of the tournament’s eventual format. But Azema, his staff and the players would be lying if they ever claimed it was good enough. Which they never have.
On paper, the 2020/21 Clermont squad looks stronger, more balanced and has a back line to terrify even the most organised of defences. ASM fans expect better fare than they saw sometimes last season. With this squad, they should get it.
Arrivals
Peni Ravai; Christian Ojovan; Adrien Pelissie; Etienne Fourcade; Sebastien Bezy; Kotaro Matsushima; Bastien Pourailly; Tavite Veredamu (short-term contract)
Departures
Davit Zirakashvili; Loni Uhila; Beqa Kakabadze; John Ulugia; Mike Tadjer; Faifili Levave; Julien Ruaud; Greig Laidlaw; Charlie Cassang; Isaia Toeava; Remy Grosso; Nick Abendanon; Donovan Taofifenua
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments