La Rochelle 13 (6)
Clermont Auvergne 23 (13)

Clermont Auvergne kick-started a weekend of European action by winning 23-13 at fellow French side La Rochelle on Thursday night to progress to the semi-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Club captain and France international Aurélien Rougerie scored a first-half try on his comeback from suspension, and young Fijian Kini Murimurivalu grabbed the winner eight minutes from time after La Rochelle had fought back to level up at 13-13.

Murimurivalu, 21, has been in prolific form for Clermont's 'espoirs' but this was his first try for the senior team on only his fifth start.

Clermont will now go on to play the winners of Friday night's all-French clash between Stade Francais and Montpellier.

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'Les Jaunards' have twice previously won this competition - in 1999 and 2007 - and victory at La Rochelle was always likely as the reigning French champions travelled to play a team which was all but relegated from Top 14 following last weekend's defeat at Brive.

La Rochelle made 13 changes from the starting XV against Brive, but they gave a good account of themselves throughout as the battled to pull off what would have been a shock win. Full-back Greg Goosen answered Brock James' early penalty in kind, but Clermont then stole the upper hand when Rougerie - playing on the right wing - made an incisive midfield break to score under the posts.

James converted to put Clermont 8-3 ahead, but the Australian's radar subsequently proved somewhat wonky as he missed with three of his next four penalty attempts. Goosen also struggled with his own kicks, although he did land a second penalty on 18 minutes .

Clermont's 13-6 lead at half time was a fair reflection of the game, but La Rochelle enjoyed growing momentum before Goosen went over for a 70m try on 64 minutes, with the full-back going on to convert his own score to leave it all square.

But just when the home fans began to hope they had their dreams dashed by Murimurivalu's late score just eight minutes from the end. James again converted to ensure the win, and went on to add a 76th-minute penalty for good measure.

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