RACING 92 RAN in seven tries as they thrashed Harlequins 49-7 on Sunday to stay with the Pool B pacesetters in the European Champions Cup.
Last season’s runners-up gained a bonus point to join two other French clubs, Lyon and Toulouse at the top of the 12-team pool with 10 points after two of the four rounds of games.
Racing were in control from the third minute when fullback Teddy Thomas scored in the corner.
Prop Kevin Le Guen added a second after 19 minutes after the Racing pack drove Quins back in a driving maul.
Maxime Machenaud converted both tries and kicked two penalties to put the visitors ahead 20-0 at the break but he missed three conversions in the second half.
The second half started like the first, when Racing’s Irish winger Simon Zebo crossed in the corner in the first minute.
Prop Georges-Henri Colombe secured the bonus point with a try in the 49th minute.
Scottish fly-half Finn Russell chipped over the defence for centre Donovan Taofifenua who spun through a tackle to score in the 61st minute.
Scrum-half Scott Steele replied for Quins but Racing responded with two late scores.
Teddy Baubigny, who had replaced Le Guen, smashed over in the 76th minute and Francois Trinh-Duc, who had come on for Russell, trotted over two minutes later.
Trinh Dic also converted both late tries.
“Our forwards had a lot of control in the match,” Russell told British broadcaster BT.
“Our driving mauls and our scrums, always on the front foot, we’re guaranteed to get good ball there.
“The whole pack create that strength and that power and I would imagine for teams that are facing us, it’s quite daunting. It’s a real strength.”
Leinster and Wasps lead Pool A with 10 points.
Wasps gained a hard-fought 33-14 win over Montpellier on Friday and Leinster beat Northampton Saints 35-19 on Saturday.
The weekend was, however, dominated by games that were not played.
Lyon, La Rochelle and Toulouse were awarded 28-0 victories against Glasgow Warriors, Bath and holders Exeter Chiefs after the three British clubs suffered coronavirus outbreaks.
But after Toulon refused to play at Scarlets on Friday, claiming Covid-19 “sanitary conditions were not met”, the Welsh team were awarded victory.
Toulon said on Saturday they were considering appealing the decision.
- A previous version of this article erroneously stated that Racing’s win meant Clermont could no longer reach the knockout stages. Clermont can still amass enough points to reach the last eight.
What a left hook
@Joe Bloggs: what a chin
I watched this live. The punch from Uzcategui was after the bell. Dirrell himself showed allot class and sportsmanship, approaching Uzcategui to say he forgave him. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Dirrell’s corner. They started a fight at ringside and then when they eventually got in the ring Dirrell’s uncle carried out this cowardly attack on Uzcategui.
Hopefully he was arrested immediate after and charged with assault.
@SYM-Metal: UPDATE: There is an official police report filed. Mr Leon Lawson is wanted on 2 counts of assault in the 1st and 2nd degree,by the state of Maryland.
Mr Lawson was not arrested at the scene and is still at large. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
@SYM-Metal: The bell went when he was swinging. Fair enough it did connect after which is illegal but I don’t think it was 100% intentional.
As for Andre Dirrell, the guy has absolutely no balls whatsoever. It’s sickening how much of a quitter he is. Absolute play acting pretending he couldn’t continue as he knew he had a chance of a DQ win if he quit, it wasn’t as if he was caught with a sucker punch, they were still fighting. He was even getting up and decided to go back down. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt had he not done something similar against Arthur Abraham.
As for his uncle that was despicable, kind of funny I can’t lie, but horrible.
@SYM-Metal: I thought it was marginal if it was late. I think the refs positioning was poor in that situation with dirrell being backed in the corner and uzcategui letting his hands go with the round almost over the ref should have been right on the action,instead of a few yards away. A fighter in the mode of a combo is unlikely to just be able tot stop it when he is already in motion, talking about milliseconds in this instance.
@Seamus Cummins: you could hear Dirrell’s corner telling him to stay down
DJ Khaled should have done more to prevent that
Classy stuff.
Uncle Bam
Poor Dirrell can never catch a break.
@Leon: I think he’s the one catching the breaks and making the most of them.