RACING METRO SUFFERED their seventh Top 14 loss of the season after going down 6-0 to Oyonnax this evening.
Jonny Sexton played the full eighty minutes for the Parisians, but couldn’t help prevent the nail-biting defeat. The Ireland out-half missed with the only two penalty attempts he had, with both slipping narrowly wide.
The former Leinster man shook his head and directed a wry smile at assistant coach Ronan O’Gara after the second penalty. Both efforts had looked like being on target before the strong wind pulled them narrowly off course at the last moment.
Oyonnax were deserved winners for their sheer desire and fight in contact during what was an arm wrestle of a match on a desperately poor pitch at Stade Charles Mathon. The fact that Christophe Urios’ side work off a budget in the region of €9.2 million – compared to Racing’s €23 million – makes this achievement all the greater.
The result comes as less of a shock when Oyonnax’s previous home victories over the likes of Clermont, Castres and Toulon are taken into account. Last season’s Pro D2 champions have made the Charles Mathon a true fortress, and the town’s 23,000 population are renowned as some of the best rugby supporters in France.
Urios’ men were forced to repel an extended onslaught metres out from their try-line in the closing minutes, with some heart-stopping moments rescued by their dogged defence.
For Racing, this defeat comes as a stark contrast to the home victory over Toulon last weekend, and again suggests that Jack Lorenzetti’s club have some way to go before they will be competing for trophies. Mike Phillips and Dan Lydiate were left on the bench for this clash, with their late substitute appearances not proving enough to turn the game around.
Very easy to blame a few mistakes when in truth the individuals and the system were terrible. Ireland don’t have an offload/continuity game yet that’s what we tried from the first ball against the best team in the world. We didn’t help ourselves with poor kicking and cheap turnovers but to not mention the coaches and tactics in this analysis is very short-sighted
@Mark Dooley: players largely to blame for basic errors. Coaching staff have to take blame for selection of non form & rusty players and for lack of variety to our game since our the win v all blacks. It was a chance for them to throw caution to the wind and start the with at the least Beirne, ruddock & larmour.
Good analysis Murray
@Mark Dooley: this excellent analysis clear shows that the team was well set up tactically as we were creating space but basic errors by players meant we failed to take advantage of those opportunities. In fact we turned the ball over and handed advantage to NZ. Once again an Irish team has not turned up for a World Cup. That for me is a mental issue that we need to face up to and overcome. Blaming coaches, injuries etc only avoiding the truth and the real issue. Interesting to hear Schmidt say they started focusing on this QTR final end last year, just before their form went to shit.
@Mark Dooley: Excellent analysis by Murray. I disagree with you blaming the coaches & tactics. Uncharacteristic errors, missed kicks & missed tackles by players cost us dearly plus NZ were ruthlessly clinical imho.
@David Supple: coaches responsible for selecting out of form players based on what they have done in the past. Kearney in particular was a pick to try and not lose a game rather than win one as he offers nothing in attack. All you gave to do is look at the abs selection policy for 15 and it is almost always a try scoring machine and the rawness of the two wings to see what proactive selection looks like.
It will be interesting to see what a defensive coach in Farrell. thinks or does with Stockdale. His instinct is to go for the interception and he bites quite a bite. When it works it’s fantastic but when it doesn’t it’s at least 3 points.
I’m not singling our Stockdale but more how our new coach sees it.
Why in this article and others are teams lauded for being able to catch and pass the ball, these players are playing rugby 5 days a week why do we think catch pass is so special, is it because Ireland are so bad at it? Its been killing Munster for 10 years when will we wake up to the basic skills required????
The muppets in the crowd should have shut up and respected the haka. Those clowns over there are just bandwagon jumpers.
@munsterman: Totally disagree, it should be shown as much respect that it deserves and that is f£¥k all!
@munsterman: stupid comment. Had nothing to do with anything