Morgan Parra came off the bench to kick Clermont Auverge to a 25-19 victory over Sale Sharks in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Introduced with the scores level and 20 minutes to go at Stade Marcel Michelin, France half-back Parra landed two penalties to break the deadlock.
Sale were able to take away a losing bonus point but will still have to pick up more points in their final pool game against Ospreys at home next weekend to be certain of a place in the top eight in Pool A and secure a place in the last 16.
Sharks boss Alex Sanderson, already without an unnamed England international who was suspended by the club due to an ongoing police investigation, lost chief playmaker AJ MacGinty late on meaning he had to put his faith in 21-year-old Kieran Wilkinson at number 10.
There were six first-half tries as Fritz Lee, Alivereti Raka and Damien Penaud for the hosts, and Jean-Luc du Preez, Tom Roebuck and Bevan Rodd for the visitors went over to see the sides go in level at the break.
Sale successfully negotiated a 10-minute sin-bin period for full-back Luke James and almost regained the lead just after the hour mark when Cliff dived in at the left corner, only to be denied a try by an arm in touch.
Clermont, though, went back in front in the 67th minute when replacement scrum-half Parra knocked over a 45-metre penalty, and with five minutes to go he added another to give his side some breathing space.
Bordeaux ran in seven tries to comprehensively beat the Scarlets 45-10 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored a hat-trick and there were further tries from Cameron Woki, Geoffrey Cross, Maxime Lamothe, and Nans Ducuing to fire Bordeaux to a bonus-point victory. Liam Williams and Gareth Davies scored the only Scarlets tries.
Both sides were forced into late changes with three positive Covid cases in the Bordeaux side forcing Francois Trinh-Duc, and Maxime Lucu out of the starting XV with with Santiago Cordero having to cover at scrum-half, and Mathieu Jalibert starting at 10.
The Scarlets lost Scotland international Blade Thomson and prop WillGriff John in the warm-up. In came Morgan Jones at lock, and Samson Lee at tight-head prop, with Jac Price, and Harri O'Connor coming onto the bench.
Jalibert and Cordero engaged in some interpassing for Bordeaux, with a lovely inside ball putting Woki over for the opening try. Jalibert added the extras, and the Top14 side were celebrating their second try just six minutes later. Full-back Bielle-Biarrey sliced through the visiting side’s defence before turning the Scarlets inside out to score.
Another Jalibert conversion was followed by a try for Cross in the right corner, scored when Scarlets full-back Williams was in the sin bin for cynically killing the ball at the breakdown.
It took Scarletts until the 51st minute to finally get on the scoresheet when Williams collected a Rhys Patchell kick, but Bielle-Biarrey had already scored his second by that stage.
Any chance of a comeback was soon squashed as Cordero broke the cover before putting Lamothe in, with Ducuing adding a sixth before Bielle-Biarrey nabbed his hat-trick try.
