Following Racing 92’s 23-12 win over Harlequins in the Investec Champions Cup, here are five key takeaways from an enthralling game in Paris.
The top line
The conditions were awful for two sides who like to throw the ball around, so they had to show a fresh edge to win.
Harlequins drew first blood through Alex Dombrandt, but despite their dominance in the game only crossed the whitewash once more through Will Porter.
Racing, on the other hand, were clinical and took their chances when it mattered most. Tries through Nolann Le Garrec, Wame Naituvi and Max Spring were enough to steer the Parisians to victory in an entertaining game.
The game was certainly one for the purists, with the conditions taking their toll on proceedings, but a win in the early stages of the Champions Cup is such a precious thing and Racing will be grateful to get through this game with the points, whilst denying Harlequins a losing bonus point at the death.
Given Racing’s rotten form of late in the Top 14, and their desire to lift their first European title, this will leave Stuart Lancaster with a smile on his face, but they certainly have room for improvement.
Ebbs and flows
Gosh, this was a hard game to cover. Interesting and enjoyable don’t get me wrong, but hard.
Munster v Stade Francais: Five takeaways as hosts ‘blow away’ 13-man Parisians in ‘proper cup tie’
Momentum just never went with one side, and whenever one looked like scoring the other would pop up and make a crucial turnover, and this happened for virtually the entire game. The conditions were awful, which probably played into the even nature of the game, but yet no one was able to pull away from the other. This left the game precariously balanced on a knife-edge, and it made for a really interesting watch.
You felt something was bound to break through eventually and finally decide the outcome of the game, and it fell to Racing, but it was such an interesting watch throughout.
Sloppy Harlequins
The visitors will be kicking themselves tonight, as they could have killed the game off in the first-half. Harlequins had 71% possession and 73% territory in the opening 40, but only had five points to show for it. That simply isn’t good enough to be competitive at Europe’s top table.
No matter what they tried, and they tried a lot of different tactics, they just couldn’t unlock the Parisians’ defence. On the flip side, Racing 92 had two chances and scored two tries, that’s the efficiency you need to be considered one of the best sides in Europe.
The weather was pretty grim, which would have had an effect on things, but they just have their usual attacking flourishes on the game and that should certainly worry Danny Wilson.
A lot of their issues came through sloppy errors. Again, the conditions could have been the main reason for these, but the sheer amount of errors should again keep Wilson up at night. An attack that works the way Harlequins’ does needs accuracy and precision, but they just lacked that against Racing and it eventually came back to haunt them.
Bizarre Racing to kick on
It was almost like watching two different teams play in the White jersey today, in what was a really bizarre win for Racing. The Parisians have almost become synomous with flair, and they showed that today with their three tries, but yet for around 90% of the game they played a completely different style.
They looked to bash through Harlequins for the most part, opting to deploy a more basic approach in the tight channels, and this simply didn’t work for them. Quins’ defence just hit them right at the gainline and really restricted them in this area.
When they did fling it wide, however, they looked so deadly. Racing were just able to slice through the wider channels with ease, when used, and that’s basically what killed Quins off in the end.
It’s not been easy going for Stuart Lancaster’s side this season as they sit eighth in the Top 14 after 11 rounds, which isn’t good enough for a club the size of Racing, but this could be the spark they need to restart their season properly.
It seemed, at times, their attack was simple just to get a bit of confidence back into them to then go and strike out wide, but now they should be feeling a lot better and will hopefully play with that unique identity they have become famed for.
Marcus Smith
Whilst we’ve touched on Quins’ issues, Marcus Smith was able to show another side to him that should certainly please Steve Borthwick. The conditions definitely didn’t suit his usual style, but he showed he could play in a different way tonight, a way that we haven’t quite seen from the fly-half in his early career.
He still had some nice flourishes, as you would expect from him, but yet he played to the conditions and had much more control over the attack game than in previous outings as he allowed other players to get Quins into promising positions, rather than doing it all himself.
This was the big question mark over him after the Autumn Nations Series, if he could properly run the show, but today he proved he could do exactly that, even in defeat.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/racing-92-v-harlequins-five-takeaways-as-bizarre-parisians-make-sloppy-visitors-pay-for-missed-chances
