The kind of slap that leaves traces.
On the last day of the Top 14, Racing 92, totally absent, was crushed in Lyon who knocked it out with two sumptuous tries from New Zealand rear Toby Arnold (35th) and Fijian winger Josua Tuisova (38th).
In the end, 45-11, the addition was salty to Gerland.
And, as a direct consequence, the Hauts-de-Seine club fell to seventh place in the standings, overtaken by the amazing promoted Bayonne and Union Bordeaux-Bègles.
To discover
Fixtures and Top 14 results
Ranking Top 14
Ile-de-France manager Laurent Travers did not use the language of wood.
“Nothing to say… When you take 45 points, there is only one thing to do, say nothing and assume.
We have to be better on the pitch and during the week
,” he said.
While there are only seven days left to play, the Racingmen have no time to gamble.
Coming to the Stade Toulousain Arena, even without its internationals, will be crucial.
On an accounting level, but also to regain confidence.
“Let's not expect anything from others, let's do what it takes to be able to come back to it,
continues the Altosequan technician.
Others have the right to be good, but it is up to us to be better.
We still have our destiny in our hands, we don't depend on anyone.
»
Leinster have messed everything up
Regularly inconstant in recent seasons, capable of pretty brilliant shots but also of notable underperformance, the Ile-de-France residents are navigating even more in troubled waters this season.
After a failed start to the season, they had been able to bounce back and regain color, signing five successes in a row.
But the Champions Cup went through it, and the rout suffered in Nanterre against the formidable Leinster (10-42) did damage and broke the good momentum.
Since then, Laurent Travers' players have never had two successes in a row, winning only three of their last eleven matches (Harlequins, La Rochelle, Brive and a draw at Castres), in all competitions.
How to explain such a blow of less well?
One of the reasons may be to be found in all the extra-sporting agitation that reigns around the Ile-de-France club.
Some key elements left Ile-de-France last summer, in particular Teddy Thomas, Georges-Henri Colombe, Yoan Tanga (all three left for Stade Rochelais), but also the Australian Swiss army knife Kurtley Beale, who returned to the Waratahs.
The new recruits were not all satisfactory (Woki, Wade, Tuivuaka, Grace...).
The brutal announcement of the end of Virimi Vakatawa's career, at the beginning of September, also marked the whole club.
And the upcoming renewal of the staff could also be disruptive: departure of Laurent Travers as club president, arrivals of the Englishman Stuart Lancaster and Frédéric Michalak,
Read alsoRacing 92: recruitment with mixed results for a year of transition?
Some argue that this 2022-2023 season is a season of transition, of reconstruction.
From there to missing the final stages?
It would be a first since the return to the top flight in 2009-2010 of Racing, crowned in 2016. No other club, over this period, has managed to have such regularity at the time of the playoff matches.
At the start of the season, third-line Wenceslas Lauret told us:
“We should sometimes avoid lying to ourselves and face reality.
If you want something, you have to give yourself the means.
That's how we'll get there.”
And the former international with 27 selections to hammer:
“I think there is an urgency to win a trophy.
President Jacky Lorenzetti puts a lot of resources into allowing us to evolve in good conditions.
We must honor everything he does.
By winning a title.
So far it seems complicated...
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