'Iribaren could be their man of the match' - Fans shocked at Racing halfback's Champions Cup final performance
Exeter’s thrilling 31-27 victory over Parisian club Racing 92 will be remembered for the Devon-club’s goal line defence to prevent Racing from taking the lead with 10-minutes to go, but it was one very forgettable night for Racing scrumhalf Teddy Iribaren.
The French halfback was benched at halftime, replaced by Maxime Machenaud, after a horrific showing in the first half that allowed Exeter to race out to a 14-0 lead. Machenaud was seen warming up after just 25-minutes after a host of Iribaren errors handed momentum to the Chiefs.
Iribaren’s night started with a failed touch finder in just the second minute, squandering an early penalty just past halfway by kicking the ball dead and letting Exeter off the hook when a line out from inside their 22 beckoned.
A short while later, the 9 inexplicably took a quick throw in to himself after a long Jack Nowell exit kick. Exeter pinned the isolated halfback and earned a holding-on penalty resulting in a 90-metre territory and possession swing that the Chiefs scored their first try from.
His performance went from bad to worse, throwing a high-risk pass in-field after coving a territorial kick from Joe Simmonds. Instead of letting the ball roll into touch, giving his side the throw, Iribaren grabbed the ball at the last second before throwing a loose pass to Juan Imhoff. Exeter’s kick chase unit swarmed the winger and won another penalty, kicking to the corner.
After Exeter knocked on from the line out throw, Iribaren’s misplaced pass from the five metre scrum to Finn Russell for the clearing kick was knocked on in the in-goal, almost leading to a gift try to the Chiefs.
If that wasn’t enough, the scrumhalf then gave away two straight penalties as his side tried to defend their own line. Exeter barged over shortly after to score their second try through Sam Simmonds.
Fans were shocked at how irresponsible Racing’s halfback was, with one fan labelling his performance as ‘the worst opening 15 minutes I’ve ever seen’, another calling for an early subsitution as he was ‘all over the shop’.
If Exeter win this, Iribaren could be their man of the match. #EXEvR92
— Ruck ’n’ Roll (@RnRRugby) October 17, 2020
Teddy Iribaren is having perhaps the worst opening 15 mins of rugby I’ve ever seen.
Kicking dead, *that pass* on the 5m line, penalties conceded.
Racing would benefit if he got sin binned at this rate.#EXEvR92 #ChampionsCupFinal
— The Travelling Reserve (@TravelReserve) October 17, 2020
Couple of costly errors from Teddy Iribaren early on.
Missing touch and then taking the quick lineout to himself. Big errors early in a European final. #EXEvR92
— Murray Kinsella (@Murray_Kinsella) October 17, 2020
Iribaren is the epitome of French right here
— Mark (@Mark_B_5) October 17, 2020
Iribaren having a William Bateman style performance at scrum half #EXEvR92
— Noel Lyons (@noel2384) October 17, 2020
I'd be changing my scrum half if I was the Racing coach. Iribaren is all over the shop.
— Doug the Prop🏉💙💛 (@DougProp) October 17, 2020
Seriously Iribaren needs gone.
— Fi (@Fiona_Hunter18) October 17, 2020
Of two hugely enjoyable rugby matches this afternoon, I enjoyed the RL game the more – the Heineken final was also compelling, but decided ultimately by errors from Iribaren & Russell
— John Field 🌻 (@John__Field) October 17, 2020
Exeter were excellent, but their MVP was either Owens or Iribarren.
— TeamCam (@TeamCam9) October 17, 2020
Despite Iribaren’s nightmare opening stanza, Racing were able to hit back each and every time Exeter were able to score with missed conversions ultimately being the difference between the two sides.
A sublime pass from Finn Russell reminiscent of his famous passes for Scotland, found Simon Zebo out wide who streaked away to score in the corner to cut Exeter’s lead back to 14-5.
A cheeky dart from Juan Imhoff became Racing’s second, as the Argentine winger ghosted over to score untouched from the base of the ruck after a weight of possession by Racing. At 14-12 the French club were well and truly back in the match but conceded a costly try to Harry Williams on the stroke of the halftime to go into the sheds down 21-12.
Zebo scored his second try shortly after the resumption of play after a high shot from Henry Slade gave Racing an early attacking opportunity. Finn Russell gave the points straight back when Jack Nowell intercepted the flyhalf just outside Racing’s 22. The England winger found centre Slade with an offload and Exeter extended their lead to 28-17 again.
When Camille Chat scored to reduce the gap to 28-24, half an hour remained. Both sides kicked penalty goals in a frantic final 30 to leave a four point difference between the two sides at full time.
After the game, Exeter’s Director of Rugby said it wasn’t his usual side that showed up, saying that Exeter’s performance had some of the ‘poorest attack and poorest defence’ he’d seen all season.
“My emotions are all over the place,” Exeter rugby director Baxter said.
“It was a funny game, wasn’t it? It kind of wasn’t an Exeter Chiefs type of game, yet we ended up winning it. We didn’t really piece the game together at all.
“In some ways, it was some of our poorest attack and poorest defence of the season.”
It was Racing 92’s third Champions Cup final loss after defeats to Saracens in 2016 and Leinster in 2018. They will be left to rue a final 10-minutes in which they turned down a penalty shot from the sideline to push for a try.
Trailing by just two points, the French club refused to take the three or set-up for a drop goal despite multiple phases in front of Exeter’s posts. After a long period of possession, a turnover on the goal line in the 75th minute after 19 phases killed off Racing’s chances.
They were unable to get back into Exeter 22 and watched as Joe Simmonds kicked a long-range penalty as time expired.
Comments on RugbyPass
Good to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
17 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
17 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
7 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
7 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
17 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
17 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
7 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
17 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
17 Go to comments