Preview: Top 14, Round Two
Last year's domestic and European Champions Cup runners-up started the season with a bang, thumping La Rochelle 44-6 at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Saturday to pick up a bonus point victory.
"We need to strengthen our defence, bringing even greater rigour, and we can't be a soft touch [Clermont missed 20 tackles against La Rochelle]," said head coach Franck Azema.
Clermont will once again be without a glut of their first-choice players, but on the evidence of their last performance they appear to be blessed with tremendous strength in depth.
Azema picked a side with a mixture of youth and international experience at La Rochelle with promising youngsters Paul Jedrasiak and Enzo Sanga being accompanied by the likes of Aurelien Rougerie, Thomas Domingo and Fritz Lee.
Clermont also welcome back lock Sebastien Vahaamahina who was cut from France's World Cup squad this week by coach Philippe Saint-Andre with Azema likely to involve him "even if he was affected" by his omission.
Flyhalf Camille Lopez – who was also not selected for the World Cup – is likely to partner Sanga as halfbacks once more, while Jedrasiak will likely continue at lock after a try-scoring performance at La Rochelle.
Clermont have seven French internationals missing because of the World Cup as well as Kolelishvili Zirakashvili, who's in Georgia's squad, Peceli Yato (Fiji), influential second row Jamie Cudmore (Canada) and Flip Van Der Merwe who's with South Africa.
Jonathan Davies, Ludovic Radosavljevic and John Ulugia are injured while Brock James is still out with a heart problem.
Grenoble also turned on the style in their opening game at the Stade des Alpes with a six-try bonus point win (38-23) over newly-promoted Agen, but they will be without influential flyhalf Jonathan Wisniewski who has a slight thigh strain with Fabien Gengenbacher stepping into the ten jersey as his replacement.
Hooker Laurent Bouchet will not travel due to injury while centres Nigel Hunt and Fabrice Estebanez, back row forwards Mahamadou Diaby and Fabien Alexandre and scrumhalf Charl McLeod have not been retained from the victory over Agen.
Centre Jackson Willison, wing Daniel Kilioni, scrumhalf James Hart, prop Walter Desmaison and flanks Peter Kimlin and Jonathan Best could get their first starts of the season.
Elsewhere, Francois Trinh-Duc will have the chance to put his World Cup omission behind him with the Montpellier flyhalf in the squad for their trip to new boys Pau on Saturday.
Montpellier began the new season with a five-try bonus point win (35-19) at home to Oyonnax, while Pau – winners of last season's Pro D2 – were spirited despite being well beaten at champions Stade Francais in their opener (18-34).
Castres welcome centre Remi Lamerat – another player not selected for France's 31-man World Cup squad – back into the squad for their home game against European champions Toulon on Sunday, but coach Christophe Urios can't hide his disappointment for the player.
"Quite honestly, I would've preferred that Rémi was maintained for the World Cup because it is a great experience for the players, even though we're happy to get him back".
Both sides were beaten on the opening weekend – Castres 16-19 at Bordeaux-Begles with Toulon slumping to a shock 22-27 home defeat to Racing Metro.
Also on Saturday, Ugo Mola will be hoping to make it two out of two as head coach of Toulouse when the 19-time French champions travel to Agen.
Champions Stade Francais are on the road at Brive, where they were beaten 0-27 on the final day of last season, with Gonzalo Quesada without a large quantity of World Cup-bound players as well as injured centre Jonathan Danty, who hurt his knee against Pau on Sunday.
Racing will be looking to kick on from their stunning win at the Stade Felix Mayol when they welcome La Rochelle to the capital, while Olivier Azam is chasing a first win as Oyonnax head coach in their home game with Bordeaux-Begles.
Fixtures:
Friday August 29
Clermont v Grenoble (19.00 GMT)
Saturday August 30
Agen v Toulouse (12.45 GMT)
Oyonnax v Bordeaux-Begles (16.30 GMT)
Racing Metro v La Rochelle (16.30 GMT)
Pau v Montpellier (16.30 GMT)
Brive v Stade Francais (18.45 GMT)
Sunday August 31
Castres v Toulon (15.00 GMT)
Agence France-Presse
