As we start to expand our focus beyond the Irish teams in the Heineken Cup, where better to start than with the competition’s all-time leading try scorer?
The mere mention of the name Vincent Clerc is enough to make followers of Irish rugby quiver with fear.
He’s been tagged with labels such as our bête noire or our tormentor in chief and while they generally tend to refer to what he’s done against Ireland on the international stage, particularly his winning try to spoil the first ever international in Croke Park a few years back, he’s done his fair share of damage at club level as well.
That would be putting it mildly. The Toulouse winger is out on his own as the leading try scorer in the competition with 34 tries in 70 appearances (9 as a replacement), a damn impressive ratio of virtually a try every two games in the most fiercely contested club rugby competition on the planet.
Of his contemporaries still playing today, only Brian O’Driscoll (31 tries), Gordon D’Arcy and Geordan Murphy (both 25) and Tommy Bowe (23) come close to matching his tally and considering that Clerc is far from done yet and none of the above have an awful lot of miles left on the clock, it seems likely that his record will stand for a long time yet.
After arriving from Grenoble in 2002, Clerc made a hell of an impact in his first season in the competition with Toulouse, scoring seven tries in nine appearances as Toulouse captured their second ever Heineken Cup title, with Clerc scoring the only try in the victory over Perpignan in the final.
Despite scoring four tries in eight games the following year, Clerc was only a substitute as Toulouse took on Wasps in the final, but he had been introduced by the time Clement Poitrenaud decided to try and see the ball over the line in the dying seconds, only to watch on in horror as Rob Howley stole in to score the try that handed the title to the English Premiership side.
Redemption quickly followed for both Clerc and Toulouse the following year as they took their second title in three years, with Clerc scoring three tries en route to an incredibly tense final meeting with Stade Francais in Murrayfield, which was settled by six points from Freddy Michalak in extra-time at the end of the 80 minutes.
He didn’t have an awful lot to do, but Clerc has scored fewer better tries than this one in the competition
Both Leinster (2006 quarter-final) and Munster (2008 final) ensured that Toulouse wouldn’t win the competition again until 2010, when David Skrela and Florian Fritz kicked all of the Toulouse points in a 21-19 victory over compatriots Biarritz.
The following season was a rare one in that it represented the only season since 2002/03 that Clerc went without scoring a try as Toulouse lost their way, but he’s back on track with two touchdowns in four games already in this campaign, with the French side still in good shape to go through as winners of Pool Two, or as one of the best runners-up if their meeting with Leicester later this month doesn’t go to plan.
Given what he’s achieved to date, it’s hard to believe that Clerc is still only 31, but he will be remembered as one of the deadliest finishers the game has ever seen when he eventually hangs up his boots.
And that can’t come soon enough as far as many Irish rugby supporters are concerned.
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