Racing 92 is still at the top of the Top 14, it is even autumn champion, but a bitter taste remains.
Because this Sunday evening, in the event of a victory against Stade Toulouse, deprived of its numerous internationals, the Ile-de-France residents could have taken a seven-point lead over the Stade Français-Union Bordeaux-Bègles duo and isolated themselves a little further in the lead of the rank.
Instead, after their frustrating defeat against the reigning champion (20-27), the Racingmen only have three left, and also see their opponents of the day getting dangerously close.
Everything came together to achieve a great performance.
An almost full stadium, with 14,866 supporters present, a very quick test and a solid pack.
But faced with the speed, the vista and the rough defense of Antoine Dupont's teammates, who played his penultimate Top 14 match before joining the French 7s team to prepare for the Olympic Games, Stuart Lancaster's men did not hold.
“We had too little of the ball”
“We are disappointed by the defeat,” conceded scrum-half Clovis Le Bail after the match, starting in the absence of Nolan Le Garrec, selected for the France team.
We're making a big start, with a first action which brings us a try after a lot of playing time. The problem is that we haven't managed to put in sequences like that.
We defended a lot, especially in the first half, we lost a lot of energy so it was more complicated in attack.
What we want is to have the ball.
And today, we had too little of it.
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Indeed, the Ile-de-France residents were dominated throughout the game.
Despite Donovan Taofifenua's first try on a marvelous pass at the foot of the young fly-half Martin Méliande, the Racingmen had difficulty finding the opening, like the English prodigy Henry Arundell, completely invisible this Sunday evening .
A serious setback for Stuart Lancaster and his men, even if they retain their first place in the Top 14 ranking.
First home defeat this season in Top 14
“I am happy that we remain at the top of the championship,” the Englishman rejoiced after the match.
It's a really tough competition, the gap between the first and the last is very small.
It's difficult to win every weekend in the Top 14, as Leinster does for example in Ireland.
But we are a young team, we don't have half the experience of Toulouse in terms of cohesion.
So I am generally satisfied with our start to the season, even if I am not happy with the matches we lost, especially this one since we are at home and we obviously want to win all the home games .
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This season, Racing 92 had in fact defeated all its opponents on its synthetic pitch at Paris La Défense Arena.
Union Bordeaux-Bègles was the first club to have broken its teeth on the Ile-de-France residents, before Perpignan, Lyon, La Rochelle, Oyonnax and Castres imitated them.
In the Champions Cup, the Racingmen still lost once at home, against Harlequins (28-31).
Despite the defeat, “frustrating” as Stuart Lancaster described it, the Ciel et Blanc preferred to draw a positive result from this last match of the first phase of the competition.
“I think we played good rugby, especially since we have a lot of absentees at the moment with internationals and injured people,” said the Englishman.
I liked 90% of our performance, but it's those last 10% that make the difference against the best.
»And Toulouse is indeed one of the best, even without its numerous internationals.