Racing masterclass leaves Quins in tatters
EUROPEAN CUP MATCH REPORT: Racing 92 ran in seven tries as they proved much too good for Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.
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.
The Parisians dominated proceedings from an early stage, rattling off the first of a septet of tries inside five minutes – with Maxime Machenaud finding Teddy Thomas from the sideline and he did the rest, stepping past Cadan Murley before gliding past Mike Brown and dotting down.
* As it happened. To recap the drama, CLICK HERE!
Harlequins’ lack of discipline was proving costly as consecutive penalties left Racing five metres out, and from the driving maul, they were halted initially but started to move and finally bulldozed over, with Kevin Le Guen the man to dive across the whitewash.
Successful Machenaud penalty kicks either side of that try left Racing 20-0 up at the break and extended that lead straight after the interval.
It was a well-worked move from Simon Zebo to Donovan Taofifenua and back to Zebo for the third try and the bonus point was in the bag soon after.
It was Georges-Henri Colombe who dived over and just did enough to cross the whitewash, despite losing the ball after dotting down.
Racing still had time for three more tries, with the first set up by Finn Russell, who he chipped one into space for Donovan Taofifenua who could collect, swivel around the tackler and dot down.
Scott Steele would grab a consolation score for the hosts but Teddy Baubigny and Francois Trinh-Duc both barrelled over for the visitors to put further gloss on an eye-catching success for the Parisians.
The two sides will clash again in Paris in Round Three.
The scorers
For Harlequins
Try: Steele
Con: Smith
For Racing 92
Tries: Thomas, Le Guen, Zebo, Colombe, Taofifenua, Baubigny, Trinh-Duc
Cons: Machenaud 2, Trinh-Duc 2
Pens: Machenaud 2
Yellow card: Scott Steele (Harlequins, 49)
Teams
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Nathan Earle, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt (captain), 7 Will Evans, 6 Tom Lawday, 5 Glen Young, 4 Hugh Tizard, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Elia Elia, 17 Jordan Els, 18 Fin Baxter, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 James Chisholm, 21 Scott Steele, 22 James Lang, 23 Chris Ashton.
Racing 92: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Kurtley Beale, 12 Henry Chavancy (captain), 11 Donovan Taofifenua, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Fabien Sanconnie, 7 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Bernard Le Roux, 3 Ali Oz, 2 Kevin Le Guen, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Hassane Kolingar, 18 Georges Henri Colombe, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Ibrahim Diallo, 21 Nolann Le Garrec, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Juan Imhoff.
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Anthony Woodthorpe (England), Simon Harding (England)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)
Source: @ChampionsCup
