Ding dong, the witch is dead.
Racing Metro finally loosened Toulon’s stranglehold on European rugby, beating the four in a row chasers 19-16 in a tense and tight Champions Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
The Parisians are now the only club standing between three Premiership sides and European glory, with Maxime Machenaud holding his nerves to kick a late penalty after a knock to Dan Carter’s knee meant the legendary former All Black could not kick from the tee.
The win at Stade Yves du Manoir sets up a semi-final meeting with Leicester in Nottingham on April 24th, while Wasps face Saracens in Reading on April 23rd.
Scrum-half Machenaud had missed a kick straight in front of the posts minutes earlier but slotted the second effort to give Racing a lead they would not relinquish. Having raced into a 10-0 lead, assistant coach Ronan O’Gara voiced his frustration with how they allowed Toulon back into the game.
“We did everything to nearly let Toulon through and it would have been a shattering blow. We lost in the last minute to Saracens and if we lost today at home to Toulon.
“I think it was weighed up today for us to do well. If we were to beat Toulon, it should be today and we just about did it,” said the former Ireland and Munster fly-half.
The win will be wildly celebrated by the club’s owner Jacky Lorenzetti, who has previously been engaged in a war of words with Toulon’s figurehead Mourad Boudjellal.
However O’Gara says Racing must not get carried away after the win and reminded the players that the club (who won the last of their five french titles in 1990) have no “culture of winning”.
“We can kick on and go one or two ways: we can either play very well against Leicester and kick on or else we fall in love with ourselves and think we have beaten Toulon and the job is done,” said the Corkman.
“There is no culture of winning in the club, there are no values and there is no culture of previous good things so that is very important to try and do that but you can only do that by your actions speaking louder than words,” he added.
Now, that is ye told. So don’t be getting any notions.
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