Good game: Sitiveni Sivivatu
Clermont booked their place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and must now wait to see if they get a home tie after beating Ulster 19-15 on Saturday.
The Irish side also qualify in second place after victories from Gloucester and Connacht on Friday determined their route through to the knockouts.
Despite the opening period ending 6-6, it was a thrilling half of rugby with typical European fire.
Morgan Parra and Ruan Pienaar did the honours from the kicking tee for Clermont and Ulster respectively, but chances came and went for both.
Parra and Pienaar continued their form with the boot as the visitors opened a 12-9 lead in the second half, but Ti'i Paulo's try gave the hosts the impetus they needed to secure victory.
The hosts started with typical fervour and tempo, and opened the scoring in the 14th minute from the boot of Parra after Dan Tuohy was sin-binned.
The Irish province, without the pressure of needing a result, gradually worked their way into the match. Pienaar levelled with a penalty, but the Clermont scrum-half responded.
Ulster continued to have their chances, though, and after their South African half-back had missed a three-point opportunity, he made the scores 6-6 at the half-time interval.
Pienaar and Parra traded penalties but Clermont were feelig the pressure as they started to needlessly infringe. And the visitors' fly-half kicked them into a 12-9 lead before Paulo powered over from close range. But a three-pointer apiece settled the contest.
The scorers:
For Clermont:
Try: Paulo
Con: Parra
Pen: Parra 4
For Ulster:
Pen: Pienaar 5
Clermont: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 David Skrela, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Julien Bardy, 6 Gerhard Vosloo, 5 Nathan Hines, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Clément Ric, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Daniel Coetzee, 19 Jamie Cudmore, 20 Alexandre Lapandry, 21 Kevin Senio, 22 Brock James, 23 Regan King
Ulster: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Ian Whitten, 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Craig Gilroy, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Johann Muller (capt), 3 John Afoa, 2 Rory Best, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Andi Kyriacou, 17 Callum Black, 18 Adam Macklin, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Willie Faloon, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Nevin Spence, 23 Adam D'Arcy.
Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees: David Rose (England), Roy Maybank (England)
Television match official: Trevor Fisher (England)
Comments
Rosbif says...
Before the game, I hoped for the wind and rain to stay away. Tick. For no-one to get badly injured. Tick. And for us not to be talking about the ref after. Oh well. 2 out of 3 ain't so bad..... but crunchfit and alanatleeds, you're both spot on imo. But JLJ is right too. Thought clermont deserved the win overall.
(By the way, for all his detractors out there, how good was Humphreys?)
Posted 20:29 21st January 2012
staph_glorious says...
Sure these things happen, crunchfit. Ulster had a number of opportunities to grab their own score, but failed. 'Game defining moments' are for column inches and Stuart Barnes' pulpit. Mastery of the set-piece and breakdown consistently brings its own reward.
Posted 20:15 21st January 2012
carpelone says...
Who has the power of stopping Dave Pearson?
Except Bryce Lawrence, is there a worse referee?
Nobody on his feet at breakdown, late charge on kickers, charge on Terblanche when he was on air, obstruction by Hines for ACM try.
This is too much. Quite boring game, Ulster exceeded expectation though.
Posted 20:08 21st January 2012
alanatleeds says...
A really excellent competitive match played in front of a stadium packed to the gunnels even though live on France2 television - it's what H cup European rugby is all about. I though Dave Pearson as referee had an excellent match although was I the only telespectator to see some foul play by a Clermont forward to create space for the try?
Posted 18:40 21st January 2012
crunchfit says...
Terrible refereeing at the game defining moment. Very easy to spot the block by the Clermont player for the try. You could see what was going to happen before it happened. And the referee was looking at it. Not sure how that was let go.
Also, Barnes barely even gave the block a mention but a minute later he won't shut up about the small shoulder into Brock James. He brought it up two times later in the game as well. Not saying he's biased, but he always seems to commentate in favour of one team.
Posted 17:32 21st January 2012