The England coaches Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell were at the home of the Premiership leaders to check on their six national squad players ahead of the opening Six Nations match in Cardiff in 12 days, and sneak a look at the four Wales internationals on view. There was little to comfort them: Dylan Hartley received another card, Luther Burrell was eclipsed by Jamie Roberts, Alex Corbisiero had a mixed afternoon in the scrum and Tom Wood suffered an ankle injury.
It was Northampton’s second home defeat of the season and was, in a way, more chastening than Leinster’s 40-7 victory here last season. Apart from some typical foraging at the breakdown by Calum Clark, the one England player on view to approach, never mind fulfil, his reputation, the Saints were muted. At the point they expected a Racing Metro team known for bursts of energy rather than stamina to tire, the game was taken away from them and they looked shockingly ordinary.
Both sides had qualified for the last eight before getting stuck into each other thanks to Wasps’ comeback against Leinster and the winner was guaranteed a home draw in the quarter-final. It was the first time Racing, who were the only remaining unbeaten team in the tournament, had reached the knock-out stage, but their ambition was not dimmed. They led 25-3 after 44 minutes having dominated the opening half, helped on their way by indiscretions from Hartley and Corbisiero, which Machenaud turned into six points.
Hartley, making his second appearance after serving a three-week ban for elbowing an opponent, found himself in the sin-bin after 13 minutes. He was a mite unfortunate to see yellow, blown for tackling Maxime Machenaud as he lay on the floor of a ruck. The Racing scrum-half had picked up the ball from the breakdown after the first of Jamie Roberts’s bursts that so discomfited the Saints. Hartley felt that the ruck was over, freeing to make a challenge. The referee ruled otherwise and the sanction of the sin-bin seemed to be a reflection more of the offender than the offence, something England will have to consider when deciding their team for Cardiff and whether to include someone whose reputation is going before him. Hartley was subdued on his return, his line-out throwing wonky and his hooking for the ball at the scrum lacking its usual timing. “Imagine being me,” he said afterwards. “I knew the spotlight would be on me, all I did was put my arms up as a player ran over me and the next thing I know I’m watching the game.”
Corbisiero, making only his second start after a shoulder injury, was fortunate not to be penalised for collapsing the first scrum of the match and was caught plonking his elbow on the ground to give Machenaud his second penalty, but he forced his opposite number Luc Ducalcon to arouse the referee’s displeasure. With neither achieving clear supremacy, the referee took them to one side for a word, not that it made any difference.
England are not only to decide on their midfield combination for Cardiff but the style they intend to adopt: the directness of Burrell and Brad Barritt or the footballing skills of Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph. They may opt for a hybrid, but Burrell, a 12 for Northampton who has been capped at 13, gave a poor audition.
While Roberts was breaking tackles at will in a man-of-the-match performance, Burrell was missing challenges and being caught out of position. Juan Imhoff, whose two tries either side of the interval turned what had been a close encounter into a rare away victory in Europe for the Paris club, nearly scored a hat-trick after slipping away from Burrell too easily, chipping ahead and winning the race for the ball only to put too much weight on his fly-kick to the line.
His first try came at the end of a tense first-half that looked like finishing 6-3 with Stephen Myler kicking a penalty after 22 minutes. Racing had applied considerable pressure without unlocking the home defence before, rather than being direct, they took pay out wide where Teddy Thomas’s trickery and Francois van der Merwe’s inside pass to the Argentina wing gave the visitors an eight-point advantage.
It looked modest with Northampton having second use of the slope, but after Ken Pisi had created an opportunity from the kick-off, his brother George lost possession 20 metres out from the Racing line after a thumping tackle from Dimitri Szarzewski and Henry Chavancy hacked on. Imhoff beat Myler to the bounce and collected his own chip to score.
Wood, who had treatment after injuring an ankle after 10 minutes, then limped off and as Northampton adjusted, Benjamin Lapeyre kicked ahead and stripped the ball from Burrell to put his side 25-3 up and all but out of sight. George North responded for the home side but Roberts had the last word with a bonus point try to make Racing the top seeds. The only consolation for Northampton was that while they may be going to France in the quarter-finals, they will not be in Paris.
