Defending champions Saracens were thrashed at home to Clermonet 14-46. It was Saracens’ sixth straight defeat in all competitions and it seems like the once mighty Sarries might finally be waning.
Alivereti Raka scored a hat-trick in the rout for the French side. The Fijian winger's stunning all-round was the perfect response to their defeat by Saracens in the final last season, and Clermont have now taken control of Pool Two.
Clermont's achievement should not be undervalued, even if Sarries have been on a bad run in the Premiership. In winning at Allianz Park Clermont became the first team to beat Saracens at their home ground in European competition and the first to beat the champions in Europe in two-and-a-half years.
Raka scored a devastating hat-rick in 25 minutes
Saracens' defeat rounded off a horrendous weekend for English clubs with all seven beaten in their European Champions Cup clashes. Never before has that happened.
The two meet again on Sunday in France and if Clermont beat them again, Ospreys will be a threat to Saracens even qualiftying from the Pool. Unthinkable a few weeks ago.
Raka destroyed Saracens in the first-half, scoring his hat-trick within 25 minutes through a mixture of electric, dazzling pace and missed tackles by the usually dependable Saracens forwards.
Saracens were blown away by Clermont
After Raka’s hat-rick Clermont were leading 21-0 and Saracens were shell-shocked. They had a brief glimmer of hope when Nigel Owens awarded the home side a penalty try and sin-binned Fritz Lee to pull it back to 7-21. However, Clermont pulled further away as the ever dependable Morga Parra landed a penalty for a 24-7 half time lead.
Any hopes of a comeback soon ended. Raka, who was in irresistible form, ran from inside his own half, weaving and beating several tackles before offloading to Van der Merwe to cross the line.
Parra duly put the conversion over to make it 31-7.
Wesley Fofana duplicated Raka’s astonishing run with his own ghosting run. With the Saracens defence stretched, he winded his way through them and touched down in the corner. Again Parra added the 2 points and a penalty a few minutes later brought the score to 41-7.
Raka scoring one of his 3 tries
George Kruis scored a consolation try for Saracens when he was put in a gap and he weaved his way through for a nice touch down, but Clermont had an answer for that. Isaia Toeava took an inside pass from Nick Abendanon to cross for Clermont's sixth and final try and give the French side an astonishing 46-14 win.
Sources:
www.bbc.co.uk
www.skysports.com
www.epcrugby.com
