All Blacks’ Moala’s double fires Clermont back to Top 14 summit

Paris (AFP) – New Zealand centre George Moala scored twice as Clermont returned to the summit of the Top 14 with a 31-11 thumping of Lyon on Sunday.

Frank Azema’s side take over from Toulouse at the top of the table as Peter Betham and Alexandre Fischer crossed to secure a fifth bonus point of the campaign at Stade Marcel-Michelin.

France scrum-half Morgan Parra made his return off the bench after missing more than three weeks with a wrist injury to maintain an unbeaten home record this season for the Auvergne outfit.

Earlier on Sunday fly-half Ihaia West kicked three second-half penalty goals to propel La Rochelle to a 14-12 victory at Stade Francais on Sunday and help coach Jono Gibbes win his first game at the club.

Springboks outside-half Morne Steyn slotted four penalties of his own for the home side who a second straight league game after a 41-6 thumping to Lyon earlier in November.

The Parisians’ coach Heyneke Meyer lamented his side’s poor game management in wet conditions.

“We gave them three easy penalties in the second half which we can’t do at this level,” he said.

“With a slippery pitch we have to be better tactically. We tried to play too much and made too many stupid mistakes,” the South African added. 

On Saturday, Toulouse had climbed to first overcoming Pau 15-13 despite missing a raft of players injured or on international duty including captain Julien Marchand and Scotland lock Richie Gray.

Elsewhere, France winger Virimi Vakatawa crossed twice to help Racing92 scrape past 11th-placed Grenoble by 24-23 to become the league’s top try scorer on eight touchdowns this season.

The Parisians’ winning points came as Teddy Iribaren converted a 75th minute try from 21-year-old centre Olivier Klemenczak.

Joe Worsley started his reign as Bordeaux-Begles coach positively by beating Toulon 36-25 to claim only a second win in six games and Patrice Collazo’s outfit’s horrific start to the season continues as they are yet to taste success on the road.

Champions Castres beat bottom side Perpignan 16-12 and the Catalans are still to win in the league this campaign.

Argentine fly half Benjamin Urdapilleta scored more than half of the visitors points at Stade Aime Giral. 

Springbok Francois Steyn made his first Montpellier appearance in more than six weeks in his side’s 18-15 win at Agen. Ruan Pienaar, who signed a new contract this week, crossed with four minutes to play to claim the four points.