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Ulster hand Stuart Lancaster's Racing 92 second successive Champions Cup defeat

Racing92's French scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec dives in to score their first try during the European Rugby Champions Cup pool 2 rugby union match between Ulster Rugby and Racing 92 at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast, on December 16, 2023. (Photo by PAUL FAITH / AFP) (Photo by PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images)

Ulster bounced back from defeat with a 31-15 victory over French Top 14 leaders Racing 92 at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday.

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Ulster scored four tries in the Champions Cup Pool Two battle to leave Racing 92 without a win after two games.

The big talking point leading up to the match was the presence of double World Cup winners Steven Kitshoff in Ulster’s starting line-up and Springbok captain Siya Kolisi in Racing 92’s set-up.

Kitshoff’s Irish side eventually walked away with the win.

John Cooney kicked a penalty and conversions for all of Ulster’s tries, three of which came in the first-half courtesy of an electric opening 40 from the hosts.

Flank Nick Timoney, centre Stuart McCloskey and No.8 Matty Rea all went over in the first period while Racing 92 were limited to only one unconverted score via scrumhalf Nolann Le Garrec, who missed the extras for all three of the visiting side’s tries.

Racing 92’s performance was riddled with penalty errors, and early on in the second period, they were punished once more as Timoney scored his second try in the 47th minute.

Eventually, the French side regrouped, Janick Tarrit dotting down after a strong maul, but the TOP14 side were still well adrift.

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Momentum was now in Racing 92’s favour and another try became inevitable, Tarrit scoring his second as the French side’s pack became dominant, but any real hopes of a Racing 92 comeback were shattered when the French side conceded yet another penalty, Cooney opting to kick what would prove to be the final three points of the game.

Ulster now look ahead to January and a Round three home match against Stade Toulousain, while Racing 92 will surely need a win away against Bath.

For Ulster:
Tries: Timoney 2, McCloskey, Rea
Cons: Cooney 4
Pen: Cooney

For Racing 92:
Tries: Tarrit 2, Le Garrec

Teams

Ulster: 15 Mike Lowry, 14 Rob Baloucoune, 13 James Hume, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Billy Burns, 9 John Cooney, 8 Matty Rea, 7 Nick Timoney, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Iain Henderson (captain), 4 Alan O’Connor, 3 Tom O’Toole, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Eric O’Sullivan, 18 Marty Moore, 19 Kieran Treadwell, 20 Harry Sheridan, 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Jake Flannery, 23 Stewart Moore.

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Racing 92: 15 Max Spring, 14 Henry Arundell, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Antoine Gibert, 9 Nolann le Garrec, 8 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Cameron Woki, 5 Will Rowlands, 4 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Janick Tarrit, 1 Hassane Kolingar.
Replacements: 16 Eddy Ben Arous, 17 Guram Gogichashvili, 18 Gia Kharaishvili, 19 Fabien Sanconnie, 20 Ibrahim Diallo, 21 Maxime Baudonne, 22 Tristan Tedder, 23 Inia Tabuavou.

Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Joe James (England), Jonathan Healy (England)
TMO: Tom Foley (England)

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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