Pair of Milo Longhorned
Published yesterday at 11:00 p.m., Updated yesterday at 11:28 p.m.
Racing returned to victory on Sunday against its home crowd. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
By beating the RCT (20-6) on Sunday at the end of the 18th day of Top 14, the Ile-de-France residents ended a series of five consecutive defeats in the Top 14.
Racing 92, without being brilliant, ended a series of five defeats, including three at home, by winning Sunday evening in Nanterre over Toulon (20-6), unlucky and less inspired, at the conclusion of the 18th day of the Top 14.
The two teams who presented themselves on the artificial turf of La Défense Arena had their backs to the wall. From the kick-off, the Racingmen recovered the ball and remained very high in the Toulon camp. After an observation phase, Tristan Tedder found Maxime Baudonne with a superb kick over the RCT defense. Showing his burst of speed, the third row born in Bayonne jumped higher than everyone to recover the ball and flatten the first try of this meeting.
As a reaction, Melvyn Jaminet converted a penalty from his side at the 55m mark on the left of the field, a trivial matter for the French back. Then returning to contact, the Toulonnais were not going to make their task easier with far too many balls returned due to hand faults in particular. Despite two missed attempts, Tristan Tedder then adjusted the sights to give the Racingmen some breathing room. Thanks to his South African number 10, the Ile-de-France residents returned to the locker room with a good lead (14-3). As soon as the restart, Melvyn Jaminet took charge of getting the RCT back on track with a penalty to return to this meeting (14-6, 43rd).
An unsinkable Ile-de-France defense
After the entry of Cameron Woki, released by the staff of the French team for this last day of doubles, Tristan Tedder responded at the back of the Blues to once again increase the lead of the Racingmen to 11 points (17-6 , 46th). In this duel of scorers, it was Jaminet who was the first to break a few minutes later. Behind, despite some inspiration from Toulon, the Racing defense turned into a real insurmountable fortress. The Varois broke their teeth as well as their jaws against the Ile-de-France pack which always repelled the red and black waves.
Annoyed by this lack of realism, Pierre Mignoni’s men made more and more mistakes and Tristan Tedder, always himself, did not ask for so much to increase, slowly but surely, the Racingmen’s lead thanks to his foot (20 -6, 60th). Even if in the last minutes the visitors thought they would get back into this game thanks to a try from Yannick Youyoutte well served by Jaminet, the latter finally put his foot in touch before flattening the ball in the Racing in-goal. Demoralized by these repeated failures, the Toulonnais could not find the fault and finally bowed to a score which could have been larger after a try refused to Clovis Le Bail following a forward at the start of the action (20 -6, 79th).
With this success, Racing 92 moves back into the top 6 and returns to the race for qualification for the end of the season. Opposite, the RCT slips to 8th place and no longer has the right to make mistakes if it wants to compete in the final stages.
