Top 14: slapped at home by UBB, Racing takes a real lesson

Will the Sky and Whites recover? Even more than the rout (37-14) recorded this Sunday evening in front of Bordeaux-Bègles in their room at La Défense, it is the way in which they gave up and collapsed that begs the question. The Parisians, sixth in the standings, are very far from the account today, if they want to dream of any title at the end of the year. “Yes, this defeat can hurt,” says 3rd line Baptiste Chouzenoux. It’s up to us, the players, not to let go and to react as quickly as possible. Laurent Travers, his manager, cannot explain this collapse. “We weren’t invited in the second half,” he says. We took a great lesson. “

On this synthetic turf where the rugby players spin like racing cars, Racing has indeed been overtaken by time. He had played it first, achieving a feat that we thought was futuristic by transforming his room offered to the Supercross, its bumps, its tons of piled up earth, Saturday afternoon, into a green rectangle of the most beautiful effect, twenty-four hours later. As if there hadn’t been anything.

Paris la Défense Arena, a multi-use performance hall, modular in the blink of an eye, takes French rugby to a new level. But it is another time, another rugby, riddled with muddy crampons, scents of camphor, frozen hands, which clenched throats and drew tears to the Sky and White. François Moncla, 3rd international row, French champion with Racing in 1959, passed away this Sunday in his native Béarn, in Pau, at the age of 89. The era of Crauste, Boniface, that of a sport made up of adventures and soarings told to the sound of the crackling of a chimney fire, has come to the surface of a story that gets carried away.

The old man of Ciel et Blanc

Russell, Vakatawa, Beale, Fickou or Thomas are very far from it all. Their destiny is no less exhilarating. It is only, for the moment, much more down to earth. The objective was first of all to prove that this Racing is not overtaken by the new great powers of the Top 14, including its evening opponent, Bordeaux-Bègles, who came without his master to play Jalibert. but with other Blues, Woki or Lucu. It missed.

Laurent Travers’ men are doing well in the mess, they showed it in the first part of the meeting to their advantage, taking advantage of lost balls, even allowing themselves to “chamber” their opponents. “At half-time, I told my players that the Racingmen took us for idiots, sometimes walking, which I had never seen,” reveals Christophe Urios. On their return to the pitch, the Bordelais gave Racing a big boost. More creative, faster in their decisions and their executions, they folded the meeting into three movements, three magnificent actions concluded by tests from Seuteni (48th), and Cordero (51st, 55th). Returning Racing to the image of an outdated team.