Buoyed by a losing bonus point at Northampton in round one, the Scarlets sank in the cold rain at home against formidable Racing 92. At full strength, the Parisian outfit ruled every aspect of play to register – it seems slightly hard to believe – their first win in Wales. Their scrum-half, Maxime Machenaud, was a live-wire.
Unfortunately for their absolute peace of mind, they were not at full strength for the entire game. Their international wing forward, Bernard Le Roux, was sent off for stamping, and prop Ben Tameifuna was shown a yellow card for a technical offence. Welsh sides do seem to have a problem beating 13-man teams.
They began against 15 with a positive burst. The influential John Barclay was off the field at the time, patching up a bump to his nose. In his absence, his team set up a series of drives – nothing too wide, nothing too daring – which seemed to be doing the trick until Barclay’s replacement, Lewis Rawlings, knocked on near the line.
Barclay was soon back but by now his side were struggling to control the ball. Hadleigh Parkes put a kick out on the full following a little clumsiness at the point of delivery between the forwards and Gareth Davies. Racing all too quickly proved that power and a foot-chase might be the formula of choice.
Their forwards drove the lineout following the errant clearance and Joe Rokocoko – not renowned for the delicacy of his kicking game – threaded a kick behind DTH van der Merwe. Even though he had to turn, the Canadian wing seemed to be winning the chase, but somehow managed to miss the ball, allowing Machenaud to score. The scrum-half was to shine throughout the night.
Winning any sort of ball was a problem now for the home team. The heavyweight visitors were in full control of the conventional sources of possession, forcing Ken Owens, for example, to throw long into the rain. Phil John knocked on the tap-down. The sense of a long night ahead grew when Racing again kept it simple at a line-out, drove a couple of times in midfield before using Rokocoko on the overlap.
Not long afterwards, they split the defence even more clinically, this time from a scum, when Machenaud and Le Roux made breaks before Chris Masoe finished the job. The Scarlets claimed obstruction off the ball, but in truth they were being overpowered up front and out-smarted by Machenaud.
The rain stopped for a minute and the Scarlets looked to end the half as they had started, driving for the line. Davies knocked on this time, Racing broke clear and Machenaud turned the screw by hitting the blind side and putting his wing, Marc Andreu, over. At the interval Racing were 26 points and a bonus point to the good; the Scarlets had nothing.
The second was briefly very different. Le Roux stamped – not in a bone-breaking way but all too visibly – on the shin of John and was shown the red card by the referee, Greg Garner. The Scarlets had a chance, even if Luke Charteris a long Welsh thorn in Welsh attacks, was outstanding in defence.
The rain returned with a vengeance, and Racing hunched into full defensive mode. They looked comfortable enough, but suddenly Owens, the home hooker, produced a pass to beat any defence, a loop near the line that found Aled Thomas. The full-back slid through the water to score.
What had been subdued suddenly had volume – on the field and around the ground. James Davies rose in prominence. Racing looked anything but comfortable now, especially when Tameifuna was sent to the sin bin for delaying release at a ruck. Down to 13, the stretched defence immediately conceded a second try, Rawlings making no mistake this time near the line as he pirouetted to score after a break by the new scrum-half, Aled Davies.
There was a pause after Samson Lee left the field after splitting open his forehead in an innocent clash with Mike Phillips. Machenaud had gone, replaced by the Welshman on French books. Racing had a breather and they earned themselves a penalty, calmly landed by Johan Goosen. A 17-point margin was re-established, large enough to carry them safely to the end.
