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Heineken Champions Cup: Racing 92 confirm dominance with 40-27 win over Ospreys

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Published in Rugby
Friday, 13 December 2019 13:35

Ospreys were humbled by Racing 92 for the second successive weekend in the Heineken Champions Cup, as the Pool Four leaders ran riot in Paris.

The French had a try bonus point before half-time as Louis Dupichot, Juan Imhoff twice and Simon Zebo crossed.

Tries from Luke Morgan, Lesley Klim with two, Luke Price and Shaun Venter claimed an Ospreys bonus point, their first point in four European games.

But they have now lost 10 of 11 matches in all competitions this season.

Second-half tries from Georges Colombe and Yoan Tanga ensured Racing were already out of reach before Ospreys' encouraging three-try revival in the last third of the game.

Racing had won 40-19 in Swansea last week and Ospreys could have been a try down within 38 seconds at the Paris La Defense Arena, but Maxime Machenaud had inched slightly in front of Dupichot as the Racing wing kicked ahead.

The Welsh side made the most of that let-off to take the lead through Morgan, putting the ball through the backs to allow the wing enough space to race clear down the left sideline for an unconverted try.

But Racing were soon level when Ospreys spilled the ball in midfield and Dupichot eventually capitalised to gather the ball and go over.

Ospreys were again caught out when Imhoff picked off Marty McKenzie's long pass to go under the posts, giving Machenaud a simple conversion.

A third French try soon followed as Dupichot took an inside ball, waltzing through a large gap in a disorganised defensive line, before sending fellow wing Imhoff under the posts again.

Ospreys could have reduced the deficit but Ashley Lloyd's loose pass went to ground with the try line at their mercy.

Racing had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time as Zebo tumbled over for the Ireland full-back's first try of the season, Machenaud's third conversion making it 26-5.

To their credit Ospreys came out for the second half with their heads up, but errors continued to suck all the life out of their efforts.

Racing continued to capitalise and replacement prop Colombe muscled his way over from close range for another converted try.

The visitors had no answer to Racing's power whenever they got within sight of the Ospreys line and number eight Tanga carried a couple of Welsh defenders over the line with him to score.

Namibia wing Klim at least capped his European debut for Ospreys with a try to ensure it was not all one-way traffic, his right-wing scamper matched by an excellent touchline conversion from Luke Price.

Price, on for McKenzie at fly-half, continued to impress as he took the scoring pass from Tom Williams to finish off another break on the right.

Venter added a fourth try to at least give Ospreys one point at the bottom of Pool Four, while the lively Klim claimed a deserved second of the night.

Ospreys forwards coach Carl Hogg told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a bit of a rollercoaster out there. We came into this game talking about an attacking mind-set and I think early on we probably overplayed on the halfway area and gave away a couple of soft tries.

"But this group has shown over the past month or so they have real character and real desire to put things right.

"In the second half I think it was 40-5 at one point but we just kept going and still had that attacking intent. We set a target before we came here to score four tries and it's great to achieve that."

Racing 92: Zebo; Dupichot, Vakatawa, Chavancy (c), Imhoff; Volavola, Machenaud; Ben Arous, Baubigny, Gomes Sa, Ryan, Palu, Sanconnie, Chouzenoux, Tanga.

Replacements: Chat, Kolingar, Colombe, Bird, Joseph, Gibert, Klemenczak, Russell.

Ospreys: C Evans; Klim, Thomas-Wheeler, K Williams, L Morgan; McKenzie, Venter; N Smith, Otten, Fia, Beard, Ashley, Lydiate (capt), Cross, M Morris.

Replacements: Lake, Fawcett, Gardiner, Volpi, W Jones, A Davies, Price, T Williams.

Referee: Luke Pearce (England).

Assistants: Adam Leal (England), Phil Watters (England).

TMO: Graham Hughes (England).

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