Clermont cruise to an easy win
France fly-half Camille Lopez kicked 19 points from a possible 19 to give last season's beaten finalists a well deserved victory
Lopez was a surprise omission from the France World Cup squad.
He converted all five Clermont tries, including a debut try for former England international David Strettle.
He dropped a goal and slotted over two penalties for good measure to end La Rochelle's nine match unbeaten run in the top tier.
Clermont's impressive opening victory came on the heels of Racing-Metro's surprise 27-22 win over European champions Toulon on Friday.
Lopez will have to get used to the responsibility as Clermont are without their two senior scrum-halves, as well as veteran Australian fly-half Brock James, who is out for at least two months with a heart problem.
Lopez slotted over the opening points after just 10 minutes.
The hosts should have drawn level soon after a Clermont infraction permitted Zack Holmes to have what appeared to be an easy crack at goal, but the 25-year-old Australian fly-half sent his first competitive kick for his new club wide of the far post.
La Rochelle had territorial superiority and created several promising scoring opportunities, which they often spurned.
The visitors capitalised as former Clermont star Kevin Gourdon lost the ball inside the Clermont 22, which saw Paul Jedrasiak steam through a gap, before he passed to the 22-year-old lock who ran over unopposed.
Lopez, 26, converted for 10-0 but Holmes managed to get his radar working on the second occasion, and reduced the deficit to 10-3.
However, Clermont drew further ahead when Lopez fed Abendandon and the former Bath star went over and Lopez converted for 17-3 after half an hour.
Holmes kicked a penalty early in the second-half to make it 17-6 but again Clermont opened up the La Rochelle defence and Strettle, set up by the ever impressive Rougerie dotted the ball down.
Lopez converted for 24-6.
The home crowd went into full booing mode as a minute later replacement Julien Bardy went over under the posts and Lopez converted to make it 31-6.
Clermont grabbed their fifth try of the game with eight minutes remaining. Sanga's replacement, Charlie Cassang, darted down the blindside to set up Arthur Iturria.
Lopez converted for 44-6.
Source: Agence France-Presse
