Laurent Travers’ players won (9-22) in the lair of Stade Français during the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.
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The orgy of play and testing offered by the two teams last weekend seems a long way off. But the result remains the same: in the end Racing 92 wins. Saturday April 9, the players of Laurent Travers won a precious success on the ground of the Stade Français in the round of 16 first leg of the Champions Cup (9-22). Due to the new formula, which qualifies the winner on the cumulative score of the two games, the Parisians will have to win with a difference of more than thirteen points to hope to win their ticket for the quarterfinals next weekend.
The supporters did well to bring out drums and smoke bombs to welcome the arrival of their teams’ buses before the match because there was nothing to get excited about on the pitch afterwards. Parisians and Ile-de-France residents remained stuck in a closed derby, chopped up by hand fouls, penalties and a festival of kicks. Nobody really wants to take the initiative and the risk of discovering themselves.
We had to wait until the quarter of an hour to see Racing 92 scrum half and scorer Nolann Le Garrec take the first points of this meeting (15th, 3-0), when Stade Français opened their counter at the 38th minute by the boot of its opener Joris Segonds. The first period, which ended with a small 12-6, the result of this goalscoring duel, was not expensive paid for Parisians generally deprived of balls and confined to their camp.
After 24 minutes without a single point after returning from the locker room, it was finally the three-quarter international center Gaël Fickou, a former Parisian, who came to validate the work of undermining his forwards by scoring the only try of the match (64th, 19 -6). While Silatolu Latu preferred to destroy the work of his people by illegally hitting Baptiste Chouzenoux in the air. Balance sheet, a red card, the second of the season for the hooker, who also received six yellow cards this year.
A new pass approximation and a good “contest” from Gaël Fickou finally got the better of the last Parisian sparks. The Pink Soldiers, for whom the final stages of Top 14 are already out of reach, will only have a short week to recover before the return match. And potentially extend their season.