Toulouse beat Clermont 24-18 to clinch Top 14 title

Toulouse 24 - 18 Clermont Auvergne, Stade de France

Toulouse went on to register their 20th Top 14 title as they defeated Clermont Auvergne 24-18 in the final at Stade de France on Saturday.

An infringement in the scrum from Toulouse saw Clermont open their account in the first minute with a penalty from Greig Laidlaw but Thomas Ramos helped Toulouse to level the scores with a ninth minute penalty goal.

The trend continued as Laidlaw and Ramos traded another set of penalties leaving the scoreline levelled 6-6 at the end of the first quarter.

The first try of the game came in the 28th minute when Cheslin Kolbe set up Yoann Huget but the former was sin-binned in the 33rd minute to give Clermont a lifeline. Laidlaw kicked his third penalty goal as the teams ended the first half with an 11-9 scoreline.

The second half started in a similar fashion to the first with once again Ramos and Laidlaw exchanging three-pointers as the gap between the two teams remained two.

Toulouse's second try was a replay of their first with Kolbe picking the ball and finding Huget, who dotted down his second try in the 55th minute and Ramos followed with the conversion to make it 21-12 before Laidlaw with another penalty kick kept Clermont in the game.

As the final 15 minutes kicked-off, Ramos stretched Toulouse's lead to nine points with a 66th-minute penalty kick but Lopez leading from the front kept the gap down to six points with eight minutes left in the game. Nevertheless, Toulouse ensured Clermont could not get any more breakthrough in the closing stage to seal the 24-18 win.