DHL Stormers coach John Dobson might have been met with a few raised eyebrows when he described the visitors to DHL Stadium for Saturday’s final Heineken Champions Cup pool clash as one of the great teams in world rugby. Their current position in the French Top 14, 10th, would not be an indicator of them being at the top table in world rugby. And yet, Dobson is right.
Clermont do have a rich history, and have won the Top 14 twice in the last decade and a bit, with their most recent triumph being in 2017. Clermont, also still known inside and outside France by their initial name, Montferrand, as well as ASM, have reached the French Championship final 13 times, and lost their first 11 before eventually winning it in their 100th year (sounds a bit like Natal with the Currie Cup!).
The club is also known as Montferrand because it is part of a multi-sport club known as AS Montferrand, also known as ASM Omnisports, which was founded in 1911.
The team play at the 19 000 seat Stade Marcel-Michelin, also known by its nickname, The Bib Park. It is one of the most feared away venues in modern club rugby, with coaches who have coached away teams there talking in awe of the vibe created by the Clermont support base, with visiting teams being met with a sea of yellow and blue in the stands.
The Stormers discovered just how difficult it is to play there when they visited Stade Marcel-Michelin in December. In the first half the Stormers were the better team and the crowd was relatively quiet, but it apparently became a cacophony of noise as Clermont rode the wave of support to a convincing victory after halftime.
Clermont’s yellow and blue are the colours of the French tyre manufacturer Michelin, taken from the colours of Montferrand when the firm was created there in 1889.
The city is where Marcel Michelin, the son of the founder of the French tyre manufacturer, decided to build the first factory, with the stadium being built for the firm’s workers before World War I.
Playing as Montferrand, they won the European Challenge Cup in 1999, the same year they were second again in the French Championship, losing 15-11 to Toulouse in the final, but they hit a lean period from 2002 to 2006. However, the arrival of Vern Cotter as coach - he later coached Scotland - in 2006 set in motion a revival that saw them develop an epic rivalry with Leinster, and for several years they managed to get to the semifinals of the Champions Cup, and they also managed to get to two finals in the prestigious European competition, losing to Toulon in the Dublin final in 2013 by a single point (16-15) and in 2017 they lost to Saracens.
The star of their current team is French wing Damian Penaud, but they have several other international players, such as Argentina Puma Tomas Lavanini, and another Puma in Bautista Delguy. In the first round game the Stormers struggled to blunt the power and pace of some of their big Tongan, Samoan and Fijian players.