This could well prove the weekend on which the image of European club rugby changed irrevocably. Forget the fact that Clermont’s advance to next month’s Twickenham final surprised barely anyone for this felt like a watershed moment. Never has there been a more vibrant atmosphere at a club game; never has the gap between the sport’s haves and have-nots seemed quite so cavernous.
And yet, even as Clermont’s magnificent “Yellow army” pogoed their way home Saracens’ director of rugby, Mark McCall, was acknowledging England’s most consistent modern challengers would not be recruiting any stellar signings this summer in pursuit of a happier outcome next year. While Clermont move closer to being crowned continental kings, Saracens and their ilk face a renewed struggle to keep up with their noisy Gallic neighbours.
This is because, for better or worse, Saturday was a glimpse into an increasingly rarefied future, populated by bigger, stronger Top 14 clubs, fervently supported and rivalling the international game in terms of scale and ambition. The best French sides are operating in a different stratosphere, underpinned by soaring television revenue and huge budgets. While the Premiership clubs can hire a second marquee player outside the restrictions of the salary cap next season, the reality is that none are able to splash mega-cash as Racing Métro and Toulon can. None, too, have a support base to match Clermont’s bright banana sundae brigade.
It should be remembered that Saracens beat Clermont 46-6 at this stage a year ago but the wait for a European Cup champion from England is destined to stretch into a ninth year. In addition, as McCall pointed out, salaries continue to spiral upwards.
“The goalposts seem to move all the time,” McCall said, highlighting the wage inflation which has just seen the All Black wing Charles Piutau move to Ulster for around £500,000 per season. “It’s getting more difficult when some clubs splash big on someone who probably doesn’t deserve that kind of salary.”
In McCall’s view that makes the best players “ungettable” for Premiership sides, even the well-funded ones. With Saracens also looking to reduce annual losses of £5m, the north London club are wary of hiring people who will explode their existing wage structure. “It is difficult because players talk… a guy’s got to perform if he’s going to earn that kind of money,” McCall said. “We’re very, very careful who we’re going to spend that kind of money on. We know where we’d like to improve our side and we’re prepared to wait for the right person to make that happen. We don’t want to jump in and get ‘a name’ just because he’s available post-World Cup. It’s got to be someone who’s got the right kind of ambition and hunger, not just looking to see out his career.”
It is just as well, then, that Saracens are growing a clutch of fine players themselves, many of whom will grace this ultra-competitive stage for years. Billy Vunipola and the 20-year-old Maro Itoje were a brutal contest’s two stand-out forwards; some insiders are tipping the startlingly talented Itoje to make England’s World Cup squad and the athletic forward did nothing to diminish that possibility in the most testing circumstances.
Had Jacques Burger managed to scoop up a loose ball after Richard Wigglesworth had forced Napolioni Nalaga into an error close to his own line with the game on a knife-edge, there might conceivably have been a different outcome and McCall believes his young pack will blossom further in the coming years. “The fact that Clermont and Toulon always seem to be in semi-finals or finals gives you an indication they’re pretty powerful. Because we lost today you’ll say we need more.
“But had we got a penalty in the last 10 minutes and won, then I guess you wouldn’t be having the same conversation. You’re always looking to add and we’ve got to keep our eye on our backline but our pack is developing nicely. They’re going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. It’s incredibly exciting for us to think they could be the mainstay of the club for the next four or five seasons.”
Without more penetration behind the scrum, however, Saracens are going to find it consistently hard to break down the best European sides, even if the Clermont assistant coach, Jono Gibbes, reckons this year’s domestic title is theirs for the taking. “Having faced Northampton and these guys, Sarries should be confident in themselves and their approach,” said the New Zealander, grateful for Brock James’ chip and Wesley Fofana’s flying finish after half-time which ultimately settled the outcome. “I am not talking down Northampton but Saracens have the ability to win the Premiership this year, no doubt. I have played both teams and it’s definitely more stressful playing Saracens.”
It is equally hard to imagine Clermont crumbling at the final hurdle as they have done previously, even if the Twickenham atmosphere is certain to be quieter than St Etienne. Brad Barritt and his fellow players said they had never experienced anything like it and the Clermont squad felt similarly. “I was chatting to Jonathan Davies in the changing-room, and he said it was as loud as the Millennium Stadium when Wales are playing well,” said the English full-back Nick Abendanon. “I was screaming at him from 10 yards away and we couldn’t hear each other.”
Saracens’ ears may still be ringing when they head for Milton Keynes on Saturday to tackle the Saints, with both Vunipola and the fit-again Owen Farrell hoping the Clermont experience will merely sharpen their team’s desire to win a trophy next month. Everything is relative, though, and here was further proof that, depth-wise, English sides are still chasing the game.
The sport at elite club level is accelerating towards a new era of mass globalised appeal and, like it or not, the plucky underdog is becoming an endangered species.
Clermont Auvergne Abendanon; Nakaitaci, Davies, Fofana, Nalaga (Rougerie, 74); James, Radosavljevic (Parra, 54); Debaty (Chaume, 73), Kayser (Ulugia, 66), Zirakashvili, Cudmore (Pierre, 69), Vahaamahina, Bonnaire, Bardy (Lapandry, 55), Chouly (capt).
Try Fofana. Con James. Pens James 2.
Saracens Goode; Ashton, Bosch, Barritt, Wyles (Strettle, 74); Hodgson (Farrell, 57) Wigglesworth (De Kock, 68); M Vunipola (Gill, 74), George (Brits 51), Du Plessis (Johnston, 51), Kruis, Hamilton (Wray, 56), Itoje, Burger (Brown, 75), B Vunipola.
Pens Hodgson, Farrell. Drop-goal Hodgson.
Referee G Clancy (Ire). Att 41,500.