PARIS, Dec 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Clermont full-back Nick Abendanon is looking forward to what he calls a “special” return to the Recreation Ground to face old side Bath in the European Champions Cup this weekend.
Abendanon, 33, who has two international caps with England to his name, left the Premiership club in 2014 after nine seasons and is set to play his 50th game in the top-tier competition on Friday.
“I came through the academy there, I went to university there. It’s a town I keep very close to my heart, it will be nice to go back and play at the Rec for probably the last time,” he said earlier this week.
“It’s special. When I found out we had Bath in our pool I had a big smile on my face.”
Clermont are second in Pool 3 after a swashbuckling home victory over Harlequins and a turgid defeat at Ulster while 1998 champions Bath are looking for their first victory of the European campaign.
The French side are the tournament’s top points scorers but Abendanon says they will be changing their open gameplan due to the poor conditions predicted for the English south-west.
“It will be rotten weather. There will be a lot of rain so we have to adapt our play a bit,” he said.
“We’re going to apply a gameplan that’s not what we’re used to. But it’s necessary because it’s a very important match if we are to get out of our pool. We have to win there.”
– Uncertain future –
With his contract up in July Abendanon said on Tuesday he is expecting to leave Stade Marcel-Michelin at the end of the campaign but the club’s president Eric de Cromieres denied his departure was set in stone.
“It’s true that he hasn’t received a contract extension offer but that’s not to say it’s not in the pipeline,” de Cromieres told RMC Sport.
Elsewhere this weekend in a re-run of the 2011 final, the top two sides in Pool 1 meet at Franklin’s Gardens as record four-time winners Leinster head to 2000 champions Northampton.
Later on Saturday, in Pool 4 two-time winners Munster host reigning champions Saracens, who have been fined and deducted points in the English Premiership for breaking salary cap rules.
On Sunday, World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe could feature for Toulouse for the first time this season as the Top 14 title holders welcome Montpellier in an all-French affair in Pool 5.
Fixtures (all times 1515GMT unless stated)
Friday
Bath v Clermont (1945)
Saturday
Lyon v Benetton, Northampton v Leinster (both 1300), Ulster v Harlequins, La Rochelle v Glasgow Warriors, Ospreys v Racing 92, Munster v Saracens (both 1730)
Sunday
Gloucester v Connacht (1300), Sale Sharks v Exeter Chiefs, Toulouse v Montpellier