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Sale crash out of Heineken Champions Cup in face of Racing 92 magic
Sale bowed out of the Heineken Champions Cup following a 41-22 quarter-final defeat to Racing 92 in Paris.
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English representation in the top tier of European rugby is over for another season after Leicester also lost this weekend and Racing will now play last season’s beaten finalists La Rochelle in the semi-finals next weekend in Lens.
Teddy Thomas, Finn Russell, Juan Imhoff and Max Spring scored Racing’s tries with Nolann Le Garrec and Maxime Machenaud kicking 21 points between them.
Sale scored three tries of their own courtesy of Manu Tuilagi, Akker van der Merwe and Ben Curry, with Robert Du Preez kicking seven points.
Racing built an early 6-0 lead with Le Garrec’s boot punishing Sale’s ill-discipline.
However, Sale were the better side in the first half with their scrum and carrying game causing Racing a lot of problems, and they snatched the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Powerful England centre Tuilagi picked up a loose ball before gliding past three Racing defenders to touch down under the posts, with Du Preez – who had earlier slotted over a penalty – adding the extras to give Sale a 10-6 advantage at the interval.
The first try of this quarter-final comes at the hands of @ManuTuilagi ?
A perfect end to the half for @SaleSharksRugby in this gripping contest.#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/JamtpSgsnb
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 8, 2022
Racing retook the lead immediately after half-time, though, with an outrageously skilful try.
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Scotland playmaker Russell’s cross-kick found Thomas on the right-hand touchline. It looked as if he was about to get barged into touch, but an off-balanced Thomas somehow succeeded in not only avoiding touch but controlling the ball to kick it forward. The France wing then won a footrace before grounding the ball for a sensational try which Le Garrec converted from the touchline.
Le Garrec extended Racing’s lead to six points three minutes later with a successful penalty from 40 metres out.
The momentum had swung in the home side’s favour, and they raced ahead when Russell volleyed a loose ball downfield before chasing it down, with a favourable bounce allowing him to regather the ball to score.
To their credit Sale refused to throw in the towel with their pick and go games causing Racing a lot of problems.
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And the Sharks made it a one-score game again when former Springboks hooker Van der Merwe powered over from short range with Du Preez adding the extras.
But Racing’s pack were beginning to flex their muscles, and Le Garrec pushed the Parisians out to a 12-point lead with another penalty.
And the result was put beyond doubt following a tremendous break from Le Garrec, with the scrum-half offloading to Spring who put Imhoff over a try which began in the Racing 22.
Sale grabbed a late try when Curry forced his way over the line, but there was to be no miracle comeback, and they even finished the game with 14 men when outside-half AJ MacGinty got yellow carded for swearing at referee Andrew Brace.
Racing scored their fourth try at the death with a tremendous break by Virimi Vakatawa, who put Spring over.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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 comments