Racing 92 crush Edinburgh to book last eight spot
Racing 92 became the fourth French team to reach the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup with a seven-try 56-3 home win over Edinburgh.
Last year’s beaten finalists dominated the first-half, enjoying 76% territory and 71% possession, and crossed for two tries to take firm control before booking their ticket to travel to face the winners of Bordeaux-Begles and Bristol Bears.
Edinburgh almost got off to the dream start, but somehow managed to blow two great try scoring opportunities in the opening three minutes.
Having regained Blair Kinghorn’s towering kick-off they worked space wide out on the right for full back Damien Hoyland, but Duhan van der Merwe’s pass to him on a clear overlap 20 metres out did not hit the target.
Then a slight knock-on by Jamie Ritchie after Grant Gilchrist had won a line-out on the home 22 wrecked any hopes his centre James Johnstone had of celebrating a defence-splitting run that took him clean through to the posts. The knock-on was picked up when the TMO checked the origin of the move.
Having missed the chance to take the lead, the visitors then saw Maxime Machenaud punish them with a long-range penalty for a breakdown offence in the eighth minute to opening the scoring.
*Hamish Watson running to his seat on the @lionsofficial plane like*#R92vEdi Credit: @btsportrugby pic.twitter.com/WH2a1kvXiv
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 4, 2021
Kinghorn levelled five minutes later after Six Nations player of the tournament Hamish Watson had driven to the edge of the Racing 22 and won a penalty.
Machenaud then hit the upright from 45 metres midway through a tight first-half and it took a magnificent jackal by Ritchie at a ruck two metres out from the Edinburgh line to save what seemed a certain try.
When the first try came it was from the outstanding French hooker Camille Chat, who powered over from a metre out to crown an incredible start by him in the opening 26 minutes. He was like an unstoppable train with ball in hand and his try was converted by Machenaud.
Machenaud’s third penalty extended the lead to 10 points just before the break, although there was a price to pay for the home side as they lost skipper Henry Chavancy with a serious shoulder injury.
Machenaud then took his first-half tally to 15 points with a try in support of a wonderful break down the right – and then popped over the conversion.
Edinburgh ended the half as they had begun it, by threatening the Racing line, but when the outstanding Watson was held up, Luke Pearce’s whistle meant the TOP 14 outfit went to the dressing rooms at La Defense Arena with a 20-3 interval lead.
The helter-skelter rugby continued in the second half, although it took 16 minutes before Antoine Gibert extended the home lead with a penalty off the 10 metre line having missed from similar range earlier on.
Jordan Joseph powered over for a third try in the 62nd minute and then the Georgian prop Guram Gogichashvili followed suit.
Teddy Thomas then streaked clear from the half-way line and added a second minutes later.
Francois Trinh-Duc then scored a seventh try to round things off as Racing made the last eight for a fourth year in a row.
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood 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.
24 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.
9 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.
24 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?
11 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.
11 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 comments