Top 14: a small Racing 92 finds success against Pau

Yes, Racing has returned to victory after two defeats on the lawn of the last two European champions, Toulouse and La Rochelle. But that’s about all we will remember from the success (19-6) of the men of Laurent Travers, acquired this Saturday, October 8 after a very laborious match, where the Racingmen broke away in the last quarter of an hour with two tries in seven minutes.

The game

If boredom has its encyclopedia, this Racing 92 – Pau will appear there with a nice photo between the contemplation of the paint which dries and the spectacle of the grass which grows in slow motion. Racingmen and Palois offered a match that was far too rough, with very few successful actions, collective and individual errors galore and involuntarily comic slag. We have seen almost everything, but far too rarely the technical quality that we can expect from a Top 14 match.

So in this contest of missed passes and other dross of all kinds, it was Racing 92 which ended up winning, avoiding a defeat at home which would have screwed it up badly in view of the race for the final stages. . More solid in the second half, the Hauts-de-Seine players ended up finding the light and the opposing in-goal on a Pau defensive error with a missed ball from Mondinat well exploited by Christian Wade (66th), joker English medical passed through American football aligned for the first time.

Seven minutes later, Gaël Fickou definitively confirmed the victory of Racing 92 for his return to competition with a try in the axis (74th), limiting the scope of the response from Barrett (76th) in stride. The Racingmen won, but for the substance, we will come back.

The player: Gaël Fickou, a test for his return

He resumed his starting position and the captain’s armband. Lined up for the first time this season after two sprained ankles and right knees contracted in preparation, Gaël Fickou played the entire match, without seeming to suffer from the lack of competition, it is true not necessarily detrimental with regard to the slow pace of the game.

Available on the offensive sequences of the Racingmen, the international center is at the origin of a good combination between Max Spring and Nolann Le Garrec (52nd) and above all kept enough juice to go flatten at the foot of the right post for the second try. of his training. Nothing exceptional, but at least good news for the staff of the XV of France in search of benchmarks in the centers, after the relapse of Arthur Vincent and the forced retirement of Vakatawa.

The number: 66

The time it took to see the first try of this part, registered by Christian Wade therefore. In view of the proposed game, it was long thought that Racing 92-Pau could become the second meeting of the season to end only with penalties after Castres-Brive (12-6) on the fourth day on September 24. But the English winger ended up chasing this ugly prospect.