Clermont rule France

Aurélien Rougerie's battle with Vincent Clerc ended in tears

Clermont racked up their ninth consecutive win on Saturday by beating rivals Toulouse 23-11 at Stade Ernest-Wallon in a dark day for the hosts who lost Vincent Clerc to a knee injury.

Captain Aurélien Rougerie score two tries as Clermont confirmed their status as leaders of the Top 14 in a game that lived up to all expectations.

Ahead of their Heineken Cup semi-final on Saturday, the loss of Clerc will be as much of a blow to Toulouse's confidence as their loss on the scoreboard.

The Heineken Cup's leading try scorer, Clerc will miss the last four shoot-out at Twickenham after being carried off on a stretcher with torn ligaments.

It was always going to a be a massive game. The two French giants brought no less than 35 international players to a packed 37,000-seater stadium Municipal to provide the fireworks.

The bad day at the office for Toulouse started after just three minutes when French international Thierry Dusautoir left the field with what looked like a concussion.

Clermont opened the scoring soon afterwards. After ten phases of play, Clermont's Springbok centre Marius Joubert pierced the Toulouse line. At the ensuing ruck scrum-half Pierre Mignoni put ball to boot and Rougerie beat Clerc to the ball to touch down.

Les Jaunards had brought their running boots with them and were not afraid to play extravagant rugby. They dominated the scrums but had a few problem in the line-outs which would cost them.

Toulouse stole possession from a Clermont throw-in for the third time in twenty minutes to set up their only try.

Cédric Heymans and Maxime Médard linked up to scorch away down the touchline and eventually sent Yannick Nyanga over to complete a move started from well within their own half.

After having kept Clermont at bay for 15 minutes, Toulouse were back in the game.

The next fifty minutes saw the teams play equally attractive rugby but neutralising each other with some big hits. Fabien Pelous's flattening of Napoliani Nalaga would have had rugby moms squirming.

Brock James and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde exchanged penalties with the Clermont fly-half coming out on top as France's number one scrum-half had an off day as much from the kicking tee as with his usually super accurate drop attempts.

The turning point of the match came after 66 minutes and might well give Toulouse coach Guy Novès a few sleepless nights.

With Toulouse on the attack, Clerc twisted his knee as his studs dug into the ground and spilt the ball in the process. You don't need to give a winger of Rougerie's class a second invitation and he chased down his own kick to score 60 metres later.

The closing minutes of the match saw Toulouse lay siege to the Clermont try line for 5 minutes in a bone crunching finale.

The home supporters were to go home disappointed though as Rougerie's try was the last time the scorers were troubled.

Clermont are now just one win short of bettering Stade Français's record of consecutive victories in the Top 14.

Toulouse had nothing to win other than pride but have potentially lost three of their best elements: Clerc, Dusautoir and the confidence that comes with winning. A dark day in la Ville Rose.

The Scorers

For Toulouse:

Try: Nyanga

Pens: Elissalde 2

For Clermont:

Tries: Rougerie 2

Cons: James 2

Pens: James 3