Former Flying Fijians flanker Peceli Yato dotted a try in his ASM Clermont Auvergne’s impressive 38-14 win over Perpignan in Round 2 of the French top 14 competition on Sunday.
Perpignan put on a strong battle for the first 20 minutes of the match before Clermont received a penalty which Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked in for their opening three points.
Seven minutes later, Clermont broke Perpignan’s strong defensive wall through Pierre Fouyssac, who took advantage of a ball dropped by Perpignan attackers to launch a counter for 70 meters.
Urdapilleta converted to give Clermont a 10-nil lead at the breather.
Clermont continued its dominance in the second spell and was quick to score their second try to Joris Jurand from a Sebastien Bezy spread which Urdapilleta converted again.
The match went from bad to worse for Perpignan when they were reduced to 14 players as Boris Goutard was sin-binned for a foul play and Clermont capitalised with two back-to-back tries from Lucas Dessaigne and Jurand grabbed his second in the match as Urdapilleta converted both to make it 31-0 in the 65th minute.
It was hooker Victor Montgaillard, who brought some hope into Perpignan as he scored the side’s first try and Jake McIntyre converted for seven points.
A 76th minute try from Yato, in his inimitable style, shattered the Catalan defence under the posts for a try that restored a small margin of safety which will not be too much since the Perpignanais scored their second converted try from Tom Ecochard.
