Toulon blow golden chance

It was Racing's first win since 1990. For Toulon it was their fourth final in the last five years and their third defeat. They won the Bouclier de Brennus two years ago.

It was also the first championship Final played on foreign soil. The 2015 Rugby World Cup had pushed the Top 14 later than usual and Stade de France was used for European Cup soccer. So over the border they went into Spain to Barcelona's Camp Nou, the biggest stadium in Europe and rugby men filled it with 98 000 noisy spectators.

It was a wonderful occasion – the excitement and the flags, the nonstop noise which included singing. The two teams marching out together, each captained buy a hooker, through a guard of lovely ladies clad in gold. The Bouclier de Brennus, which the French call the Plank, was carried by a beautiful lady, lowered from the night sky.

Among the spectators were two Springbok loose forwards – Juan Smith, the injured Toulon captain, and Duane Vermeuelen, the injured Springbok No.8.

Matt Giteau kicked off and the great battle ensued.

The French have a saying:  Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things stay the same. It may just have applied to the last two matches Mathieu Raynal refereed. The match before this one was at Newlands. Ireland had a player sent off midway through the first half and despite the one-man disadvantage went on to win the game. Raynal refereed again this time and Racing had a player sent off midway through the first half and despite the one-man disadvantage went on to win the game.

In Racing's case the player sent off had the power to make a greater impact, for it was a scrumhalf. Not just any scrumhalf but a French international, Maxime Machenaud. The remarkable sequence to this is that Racing did not replace him. It is unusual, for a scrumhalf is such a key player. Instead left wing Juan Imhoff played scrumhalf.

Toulon scored two tries to one but lost. They lost because their discipline let them down. The penalty count was 16-8 in Racing's favour, and Racing had two trusty goal-kickers in Daniel Carter and, for longer distances, Johan Goosen. Racing won the points for penalties 24-9.

It was not a fluid game. It was only late in the second half that Toulon backs had some rhythm. Racing's did not attempt any rhythm. But both sides tackled with finality.

When Racing got a try it was after a turnover won by Carter. They went blind to Joe Rokocoko on the Toulon 10-metre line. The elegant wing ran, chipped, gathered and scores.

Toulon's first try was also on the blind side when Mamuka Gorgodze broke and gave to Josua Tuisova a-on an overlap. Tackled by Brice Dulin, Tuisova gave back to Gorgodze who stretched out to score in a tackle.

Their other try cam from a five-metre scrum on their far left. Bryan Habana came off his wing and darted ahead. Held he somehow got the ball to Maxime Mermoz who burst over for the try. That brought the score to 26-21 in Racing's favour with 8 minutes to play. Then Toulon, set their backs in motion and for a change their hands did not let them down and they kept the ball in the tackle.

Toulon scored first when Eddy Ben Arous was penalised at a tackle inside the first 30 seconds of the match. 3-0 and red-and-black flags flew. Goosen had a break and Juan Martín Fernandez Lobbe was penalised and Carter goaled. 3-3 after six minutes.

Then came the dramatic moment in the match when Maxime Machenaud tackled Giteau and managed to tip him over so that the Wallaby landed head first. The referee and the TMO examined the evidence many, many, many times and eventually Machenaud was sent off after just 18 minutes. Racing played on for the remaining 62 minutes with 14 men, making their victory all the more remarkable and testimony to their resilience.

Halfpenny kicked the subsequent penalty and then another one before Carter made it 9-6 after 24 minutes.

Then came the first try of the match, set up and scored by big, strong, bustling Gorgodze. The conversion hit the upright and Toulon led 14-6 after 29 minutes.

But penalties by Goosen and Carter brought the score to 14-12 at half time and  then two by Goosen took the score to 18-14 in Racing's favour. The second penalty was for the collapsing of a maul by prop Xavier Chiocci after the referee had spoken to Guilhem Guirado about the number of penalties Toulon's were conceding. Chiocci was sent to the sin-bin.

From a scrum Chris Masoe and Carter formed a brief attack which ended when Toulon were, yet again, penalised 21-14. Rokocoko's try took the score to 26-14 before Chiocci returned.

Racing seemed set fair for victory but Mermoz's try gave Toulon hope with 8 minutes to play. They hammered at the Racing line and won a five-metre scrum. Then  suddenly Racing changed props. Massive Ben Tameifuna, who had been helped off the field, perhaps with cramp, some 14 minutes before came back on and took over at loosehead. The scrum was destroyed, Toulon were penalised and Racing got away. Not only did they get away but from a bit of cleverness at the front of the subsequent line-out Camille Chat raced 40 metres down the field, Toulon's were penalised and Carter goaled., 29-21 with less than a minute to play.

When the final whistle went Racing went into a long period of whooping, dancing, shouting, hugging and kissing, running and jumping, ignoring their opponents who stood to one side in soggy disappointment.

Eventually Racing were presented with the Bouclier de Brennus to take home to Paris.

It was a fascinating occasion.

Scorers:

For Racing 92

Try: Rokocoko

Pens: Carter 5, Goossen 3

For Toulon:

Tries: Gorgodze, Mermoz

Cons: Halfpenny

Pens: Halfpenny 3

Teams

Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Johan Goosen, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Yannick Nyanga, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Bernard le Roux, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (captain), 1 Eddy Ben Arous

Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Khatchik Vartanov, 18 Juandré Kruger, 19 Antonie Claassen, 20 Xavier Chauveau, 21 Marc Andreu, 22 Albert Vulivuli, 23 Luc Ducalcon

Toulon: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Josua Tuisova, 13 Maxime Mermoz, 12 Mathieu Bastareaud, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Jonathan Pélissié, 8 Steffon  Armitage, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 6 Mamuka Gorgodze, 5 Konstantin Mikautadze, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Guilhem Guirado (captain), 1 Xavier Chiocci

Replacements: 16 Jean-Charles Orioli, 17 Florian Fresia, 18 Taofifenua, 19 Virgile Bruni, 20  Théo Belan, 21 Delon Armitage, 22 Frédéric Michalak, 23 Manasa Saulo

Referee: Mathieu Raynal

Assistant referees: Romain Poite,  Cyril Lafon

TMO: Vincent Azoulay