The paradox is striking.
Leader of the Top 14, Racing 92 has only lost 4 matches after 12 days.
In the Champions Cup, it's almost the same: 3 defeats, but in just 3 days.
Obvious settings problem.
Before the fourth and final day of the group stage, the situation is simple for the Ile-de-France residents: if the Northern Irish from Ulster win against the English Harlequins (kick-off Saturday at 2 p.m.), Gaël Fickou and his teammates will be automatically eliminated, even before having played (at 4:15 p.m.) against the modest Welsh from Cardiff.
Which would constitute a first (and serious) failure for the Stuart Lancaster version of Racing.
“We can't control what happens in the match before.
As I told the players, it doesn't matter.
We must concentrate on our performance and play our best rugby,”
nevertheless points out the English technician.
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Recently, Stuart Lancaster - who knows the Champions Cup perfectly having been on the Leinster staff for seven years (champion in 2018, finalist in 2019, 2022 and 2023) - recognized in our columns that his team needed time to find automatisms with the internationals returning from the last World Cup.
“They were really excited when they came back.
It's not a mental problem, they just need a little time to learn and digest a new system,
he says.
Even if they were at Racing before.
There, things have changed, everything is different.
Whether in attack or defense.”
“It’s our inconsistencies that pose a problem for us”
The lack of serenity and control of the Ciel et Blanc, during the first three Champions Cup matches, is obvious.
On the Bath pitch, they ended up collapsing even though they had the match well in hand, leading 22-8 at the hour mark. This was admitted by hooker Camille Chat to
L'Équipe
: “
Since the start of the season, it has been our inconsistencies that have been a problem for us and this was again the case
(last Sunday)
but we have holes in the match, and if we want to become a big team, we have to work on that.
We talked about it this week, we made some stupid mistakes, and we didn't manage to kill the match.
There are times when we lose control of the ball, we make mistakes, perhaps a little stupid.
The offensive efficiency is certainly there (1,585 m covered with ball in hand, 4th best total), the touch works well (92% success, 3rd best percentage), but other problems need to be resolved, such as this indiscipline or these concerns in scrum, refereed differently from the Top 14.
“We are not dead yet, but we have to be more consistent, and in the final phase, if we are lucky enough to get there, we will really have to be,”
continues Camille Cat
.
“The round of 16 will only be in April and we will then be much better than today”
In the meantime, the Ile-de-France residents - unhappy finalists three times (2016, 2018 and 2020) - are no longer masters of their destiny in a competition which is a stated objective.
The Ulstermen, swept away in Belfast by Stade Toulousain (24-48), must win against the Quins at the Stoop Stadium if they too want to advance to the eighth.
But, on the Racing 92 side, we still believe in it.
We even want to believe in better days.
“We want to qualify for the Champions Cup even if we take a big win in the round of 16: such a prospect will give excitement and desire to the players,”
Frédéric Michalak, the Ile-de-France attack coach, told
Olympic noon.
And then, the round of 16 won’t be until April and we will then be much better than today.”
If European spring, there is...
“It’s a bit of a game of survival.
We lost a lot of points in the first matches but this one remains crucial and we will try to show a better image to hope to qualify,”
insists pillar Hassane Kolingar.