Bristol Bears were dumped out of Europe by a try in the 86th minute away at Clermont Auvergne on Saturday after a spirited comeback ultimately feel just short, going down 33-26 at the Stade Marcel-Michelin in a modern-day Champions Cup classic.

While they didn’t know it at the time, the 26-26 draw the Bears had secured when the clock ticked 80 away in France would have been enough to secure Pat Lam’s side fifth place in Pool 2 and a place in the Challenge Cup, after Benetton caused a 32-25 upset against La Rochelle and Leinster ended up romping to a 47-21 victory against 14-man Bath. But both sides were, perhaps naively, intent on going for broke in the Massif Central with the Premiership side having spoken all week about ‘winning or going out.’

Bristol were 12-0 down at the break after tries from Alex Newsome and the indomitable Alivereti Raka had put the Top 14 side ahead, but an early second half penalty try and scores for James Dun, Noah Heward and Kieran Marmion, countered by a second try for Raka plus a penalty try for the hosts, saw the sides level in the final moments.

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And with the Bears down to 14-men, with captain Fitz Harding sin-binned having brought down a driving maul to concede the penalty try in the 75th minute, Clermont eventually forced their way over the whitewash through replacement Thomas Ceyte to book their place in the knockout rounds and break Bristol hearts.

Despite no points being scored in the opening 16 minutes it was an engaging contest from the off with Clermont enjoying more territory and possession, but that brought the best out of the Bristol defence. However, eventually the pressure told and when Harry Byrne broke out the line from an offside position to put a hit on Irae Simone to help prevent him from scoring, referee Sam Grove-White flashed the fly-half a yellow card. Moments later the French side made the extra man count with quick hands and a floated pass from stand-off Anthony Belleau inviting full-back Newsome to use his pace to hit a diagonal line for the corner.

A minute before half time Clermont struck again through the ace in their backline Raka. Attacking from a scrum 10m out, scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau broke down the short-side and put the ball through the hands of Belleau to their giant Fijian winger who broke the tackle of Byrne and managed to dot the ball down in the corner as Harry Randall tried to force him into touch. Belleau added the wide conversion having missed his first shot at goal.

Bristol struck first in the second half as Clermont’s replacement loose head prop Etienne Falgoux was penalised and yellow carded for pulling down a maul from a 5m lineout out that was deemed to have been heading over the whitewash, to concede a penalty try.

Despite being a man down, Clermont hit back in style. Flanker Killian Tixeront secured the ball at the back of a lineout and dropped it down for Raka to burst onto at top speed and once again the powerhouse winger made light work of an attempted tackle from Byrne, and replacement tighthead Max Lahiff to explode over the line. The try stood despite valid protestations from Byrne that he had been blocked from making a clean tackle on Raka by Simone who was running a support line into the same congested space. It was the type of call a home side gets in France in a cauldron of noise from the partisan fans.

On the hour mark Clermont hit self-destruct as they failed to take a lineout out on their own 5m cleanly and Steven Luatua, who rose to the big occasion like the classy player he is, came up with the ball before helping power Dun over the line from close range.

The Bears levelled the scores at 19-19 with an absolute classic as Byrne chipped a kick over the home defence for Benhard Janse van Rensburg to take on the full. With the French side’s defensive structured pierced, smooth handling from Joe Jenkins, Bill Mata and then Rich Lane released Heward down the right wing and he outpaced the compromised Belleau to round under the posts.

With five minutes remaining Harding thought he had lost it for his side as the TMO came in to advise the referee the Bears captain had illegally dragged down a maul heading towards the try line. That saw the number eight depart and a penalty try awarded.

But there was still plenty of time for more drama. Raka caught the restart and cut in-field looking for space but instead ran into a double tackle from Lahiff - on his 100th appearance for the club - and Dun and coughed up possession in his 22. In a flash the Bears moved the ball from left to right with Joe Owen giving the scoring pass to replacement scrum-half Marmion who slide into the corner. Byrne - with nerves of steel with the boos echoing around the iconic stadium - landed the right touchline conversion to bring the sides back to parity with two minutes remaining with both teams with three match points in their pockets, pushing them both ahead of Bath and Benetton in pool standings, who kicked off their respective games shortly after. But they wanted more.

As the clock ticked 80 the Premiership side had the ball at a lineout but flanker Marcos Kremer got up at the front pod to intercept Harry Thacker’s intended throw for Dun. The 14-man Bears were flawless defending for four minutes, with Luatua, Thacker and Marmion mustering enough energy to charge out and prevent replacement fly-half Ben Urdapilleta taking a drop goal. But the attack continued. Bristol eventually got the ball back from a loose pass deep in their half and shipped it wide to Benjamin Elizalde, but he ran away from his tired support and got turned over. That would be the last time the Bears held the ball and 16 phases later Ceyte crashed over under the posts for victory to spark wild celebrations amongst the yellow and blue clad home fans and secure the game’s status as European classic for the archives.

ASM Clermont Auvergne: 15. Alex Newsome, 14. Bautista Delguy, 13. Mathys Belaubre, 12. Irae Simone, 11. Alivereti Raka, 10. Anthony Belleau, 9. Baptiste Jauneau, 1. Sacha Lotrian, 2. Folau Fainga'a, 3. Michael Ala'alatoa, 4. Rob Simmons, 5. Peceli Yato, 6. Killian Tixeront, 7. Marcos Kremer, 8. Fritz Lee (c)

Replacements: 16. Barnabe Massa, 17. Etienne Falgoux, 18. Cristian Ojovan, 19. Thomas Ceyte, 20. Alexandre Fischer, 21. Sebastien Bezy, 22. Ben Urdapilleta, 23. Lucas Tauzin

Bristol Bears : 15. Rich Lane, 14. Noah Heward, 13. Joe Jenkins, 12. Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11. Deago Bailey, 10. Harry Byrne, 9. Harry Randall, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. George Kloska, 4. James Dun, 5. Joe Owen, 6. Steven Luatua, 7. Santiago Grondona, 8. Fitz Harding (c)

Replacements : 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Max Lahiff, 19. Steele Barker, 20. Bill Mata, 21. Kieran Marmion, 22. Kalaveti Ravouvou, 23. Benjamin Elizalde

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Sco)

Assistant referee: Dave Sutherland (Sco) and Finlay Brown (Sco)

TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Sco)