Clermont Auvergne are on their way to Paris to face Toulon in the Top 14 final next Sunday after scoring a decisive 37-31 win over Racing 92 in their semifinal at the Stade Velodrome.
Despite playing almost half of the game with 14 men, Clermont constantly stretched their opponents and scored four quality tries in their victory.
First-half tries from Damian Penaud and the outstanding Camille Lopez gave the men in yellow a 19-6 half time lead, Dan Carter's boot providing the Parisian's only points in the first half.
Racing might have thought they were in for a long day, but were offered a reprieve when a moment of madness from Flip van de Merwe -- who recklessly hit Racing wing Teddy Thomas with a high shot -- reduced Clermont to 14 men for the rest of the match.
The South African lock was visibly sweating on the sideline as Carter quickly reduced the deficit to 7 points by the way of two quick-fire penalty goals.
With his side still rocking from the red card, Lopez turned the tide when he scampered over after a quick tap caught the Racing defence sleeping.
Clermont were now back in control -- They never looked back. Fritz Lee rounded off a sweeping attack and Morgan Parra added another two penalties to take their lead beyond 20 points.
Racing then contributed to their own demise when Chris Masoe was yellow carded for taking out Penaud as he jumped to claim a cross-field kick.
However, he somewhat made up for his error by scoring a late double and converting Ben Tameifuna's injury-time try in what is likely to be the final act in a very successful career.