Racing win to move second

Editor

Racing 92 claimed their third win from four games in the Top 14 as they had too much class against Oyonnax, prevailing 25-13 on Sunday.

Racing led 22-3 at the break thanks to an impressive first-half performance that saw Leone Nakarawa, Virimi Vakatawa and Marc Andreu cross. Dan Carter converted two of those scores and also added a penalty goal as the Paris side looked to follow up last week’s victory at Brive.

Second-row Nakarawa reached out to score on 12 minutes before Vakatawa and Brice Dulin combined to send the wing over on the right.

Racing weren’t done and went into the changing room with their third try in the bag, slick handling leading to Andreu scoring on the left.

Former Harlequins fly-half Ben Botica struck first in the second-half with his second penalty of the game to reduce the scoreline to 22-6. And they further cut the gap on 54 minutes when a well-taken try from Quentin Etienne Lecoq pulled the visitors back to within nine points.

However Racing showed enough quality to see out the game and take the four points, with Maxime Machenaud’s penalty making it 25-13.

The scorers:

For Racing 92:
Tries: Nakarawa, Vakatawa, Andreu
Cons: Carter 2
Pens: Carter, Machenaud

For Oyonnax:
Try: Etienne Lecoq
Con: Botica
Pens: Botica 2
Yellow Card: Barba

Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Marc Andreu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Yannick Nyanga, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Edwin Maka, 4 Leone Nakarawa, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Viliamu Afatia
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Vasil Kakovin, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 20 Teddy Iribaren, 21 Remi Tales, 22 Louis Dupichot, 23 Luc Ducalcon

Oyonnax: 15 Quentin Etienne Lecoq, 14 Axel Muler, 13 Vincent Lasmarrigues, 12 Roimata Hansell-Pune, 11 Tim Giresse, 10 Ben Botica, 9 James Hall, 8 Curtis Browning, 7 Luc Barba, 6 Patrick Sobela, 5 Christian Njewel, 4 Phoenix Battye, 3 Hoani Tui, 2 Quentin MacDonald, 1 Vincent Debaty
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Geledan, 17 Khatchik Vartanov, 18 Geoffrey Fabbri, 19 Bilel Taieb, 20 Jeremy Gondrand, 21 Maxime Veau, 22 Rory Grice, 23 Pietro Ceccarelli

Referee: Tual Trainini
Assistant referees: Frédéric Bouzac, Jean-Luc Rebollal
TMO: Maxime Chalon