The holders saw their 20-game unbeaten European run brought to a screeching halt by a revved-up Clermont side inspired by man of the match Alivereti Raka, who ran in three of their six tries.
Saracens’ heaviest European defeat completed a clean sweep of losses for all seven Premiership sides in the Champions Cup as their defence crumbled in unfamiliar fashion against an unfamiliar backdrop.
Put back 26 hours after snow made access to Allianz Park hazardous, EPCR initially declared the game a behind-closed-doors fixture because of similar concerns. An improvement in the weather led to a rethink yesterday morning so fans who had tickets – and who could make a 5.30pm kick-off – were allowed in after all.
Not surprisingly, this elaborate game of organisational hokey cokey led to a stream of no-shows with the upshot being this repeat of last year’s final was played out in front of barely 1,500 at Allianz Park.
Clermont, whose loyal band of around 80 diehards beat out an echoing rhythm to the game on their drums, were not impressed and issued a pre-match promise to pay back their inconvenienced fans.
“For about a dozen centimetres of snow, the organisation of the game bordered on the ridiculous and the absurd,” the club said in a statement.
“Throughout this whole story the club was never invited to the negotiation table and has had to adapt to the inability of the local authorities and Saracens to organise a major sporting event – all this to the detriment of the preparation of our players and messing about our supporters as if they were toys.”
They were as good as their word although Saracens chairman Nigel Wray who, estimating the rescheduling had cost his club £300,000, preferred to blame EPCR.
“I understand what Clermont are saying, it’s annoying from everybody’s point of view. It’s important to stress the health and safety officer made his decision – it’s nothing to do with us,” he said.
“But I’m a big fan of fans and it’s not the way it should have been done. Organisations like EPCR and the RFU, they’re all chaotic. I don’t think they work and this is another example of why.
“I thought the closed-doors statement from EPCR was outrageous. It was a unilateral statement and it was not what had been discussed.”
The ghost game turned out to be a horror story for Saracens.
In a disastrous opening 25 minutes, they found themselves 21-0 down and deprived of their captain Brad Barritt for the rest of the game with concussion. The architect of their difficulties was Rava, Clermont’s Fijian wing, who ran in a quickfire hat-trick.
A beautiful delayed pass from Wesley Fofana put him for his first on an inside angle before the explosive wing struck again from short range and then strolled in on the shoulder of Morgan Parra after the 16-point scrum-half’s break. So much for Saracens’ fabled defence which missed 37 tackles – the wolfpack was curled up somewhere else in front of a roaring fire.
Saracens did pull seven points back before half time when they were awarded a penalty try by referee Nigel Owens but, despite the sin-binning of Fritz Lee at the same rolling maul, they were unable to strike again from three more attempts at the lineout drive with Clermont down to 14.
Rava turned provider six minutes after the break with a scintillating 60m run which saw him evade four defenders before putting away lumbering second row Flip van der Merwe for a superb try.
Saracens added a consolation try through George Kruis in between further scores for Fofana and Isaia Toeava but they were ragged by the end as the pre-eminent side of the era in England and Europe crashed to a sixth successive defeat in all competitions.
“We didn’t see that coming,” admitted Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall.