Two tries in the first 20 minutes was not enough for Ulster as Racing 92, last season’s Heineken Champions Cup runners-up, touched down five times to secure a 44-12 bonus point victory at their indoor Paris home.
The Ulstermen had the building blocks in place for a famous win at the Paris La Defense Arena, with David Shanahan and Jacob Stockdale crossing for tries to establish a 12-3 lead, but Racing showed their European pedigree by scoring 41 unanswered points during the closing hour.
Despite some strong individual performances, including Irish-qualified centre Will Addison, 20-year-old Academy full-back Michael Lowry and the hard-carrying Marcell Coetzee, the visitors were eclipsed by Racing’s power game and the panache of their backs with Simon Zebo, Juan Imhoff and Teddy Thomas all touching down.
Scotland star Finn Russell finished with 17 points, including a brace of first half penalties which steered them to a 20-12 interval lead. Ulster were still in the hunt at that stage but they were left to rue their scrum and lineout issues, and some missed opportunities, as Racing clinically put them away.
The province’s head coach Dan McFarland said afterwards: “We got a glimmer of what we’re capable of, then we got a lesson in accuracy. Throughout the game, we demonstrated we can cause them trouble, but ultimately there were a couple of things that needed to go right for us to be competitive throughout and have a chance of winning.
“One is that if we got a chance to keep hold of the ball, we needed to take it, and we didn’t do that. The lineout was one which didn’t go great, we have to be better in that. One of the areas that we have been used to getting access at is turnovers at the breakdown and I thought Racing were excellent today, they hung on to the ball really well. That wasn’t an access.
“The other was we were given a lesson in terms of accuracy in finishing off. So, they were really excellent in that area and we didn’t turn as many opportunities as we needed to into points. We’ll keep working on where we want to go and the style of play we want to play, we’ll work on the defensive side and the set piece.”
Shanahan, who started at scrum half in place of the injured John Cooney, broke the deadlock on five minutes. His half-back partner Billy Burns led the initial counter attack and Lowry then showed his pace to carry deep into Racing territory before offloading to Craig Gilroy. Addison used the quick ball to punch a hole in the defence, and with Shanahan on his shoulder, showed soft hands to put the Dubliner in under the posts. Burns converted for a 7-0 lead.
Racing hit back immediately with out-half Russell landing a penalty from in front of the posts. Ulster’s cause was not helped when number 8 Nick Timoney was sin-binned on the quarter hour for lifting Fabien Sanconnie above the horizontal, yet Grand Slam winner Stockdale soon got over for his third try in as many games..
Burns secured scrappy ball from a lineout and the red-shirted pack made a few hard yards. The increasingly-influential number 10 put in a pinpoint cross-field kick for Craig Gilroy who just could not get a pass away to the onrushing Lowry, but Burns was quickly fed again and his right boot threaded a kick over to the opposite left wing where Stockdale gleefully touched down.
Racing responded with their first try after 27 minutes, getting a good nudge on at a scrum to expose Ulster’s blindside. Number 8 Antonie Classen broke from the base and drew in Stockdale before putting replacement scrum half Teddy Iribaren over, with Russell conversion’s closing the gap to 12-10.
The Paris giants took the lead with a second seven-pointer just four minutes later, although there was more than a hint of a knock-on from Imhoff in the build-up. Play continued and Iribaren cut through midfield before centre and man-of-the-match Olivier Klemenczak broke a tackle and offloaded for flanker Wenceslas Lauret to touch down to the right of the posts.
The try was awarded by referee Nigel Owens without a TMO check, and Russell’s conversion and subsequent penalty – with the last kick of the first half following another powerful Racing scrum – gave the French outfit an eight-point advantage at the break.
Just four minutes after the restart, Klemenczak’s footwork fooled the Ulster defence in midfield where he broke past the covering Iain Henderson and Coetzee and gave a simple pass to Argentina winger Imhoff who dotted down behind the posts.
Russell extended Racing’s lead to 18 points with a simple penalty following a deliberate knock-on from Coetzee, and the hosts wrapped up their bonus point in the 69th minute. Russell caught Ulster flatfooted by collecting his own chip out of the 22 and he put the supporting Thomas away, despite a committed chase from replacement Angus Kernohan.
Zebo, Munster’s record try scorer, opened his Champions Cup account for his new club in the final minutes by crossing in the right corner from Ben Volavola’s long pass. The Fijian international also added the extras to Racing’s fifth and final touchdown of the afternoon.
Ulster’s European campaign resumes on Friday, December 7 when they visit the Scarlets, with the GUINNESS PRO14 rivals currently sitting third and fourth respectively in Pool 4. McFarland’s side are a point behind second-placed Leicester Tigers (five points) with Racing out in front on 10.
Giving his post-match reaction following the second round defeat, Ulster captain Rory Best said: “There was a feeling before (the tournament) that you’ve got to win your home games and get as many points away from home as you can. I think we had an opportunity here to get at least one point and we haven’t got it.
“We had a couple of opportunities at the end of last week (against Leicester) to get another point, which we didn’t. Racing, as number one seeds, look like the team to beat in our pool but at the same time, we have four games now that we feel are four winnable games. Historically, you’ll see that if you can get five out of six or four out of six with some bonus points along the way, you have a chance.
“We have back-to-back games against Scarlets, they’re going to be fighting for their lives and I think, to a certain extent, so are we because we need to get something over there and probably need a win. You saw last year that Scarlets lost their first two games and got through.
“We have to first and foremost make sure that we go back to the PRO14 and take the aspects that were pleasing over the last two weeks, march them forward, and then just look at those little bits of improvement. Where we are at this point, especially early in the season, it’s all about trying to improve. It is about trying to put steps forward together.”
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