Racing 92, so close to victory...
Racing 92 met Exeter in the European Rugby Champions Cup final on Saturday October 17 in Bristol.
Building on its 10-year success in reaching the final phases of the domestic Top14 championship, the team sporting sky blue and white jerseys was playing their 3rd European Cup final in the space of 5 years. Exeter, an English team present on the professional rugby scene for the past 10 years, were taking part in their first ever European Cup final.
Exeter got ahead from the very start of the match, taking advantage of the mistakes made by Racing 92. It was some time before the French team, suffering from a lack of discipline, handling errors, and bad choices, really got into the match. After 15 minutes, however, Simon Zebo and Juan Imhoff found weaknesses in the English defense and scored no fewer than 3 tries between them. The Ile-de-France squad then found their second wind and focused play on their forwards in their struggle to win the cup.
Racing 92 never faltered, keeping the hope of a victory for French rugby until the very end. The two teams traded blow for blow with neither admitting defeat, with the suspense remaining intense until the very last second. But 80 minutes and eight tries later, the match ended with a narrow and disappointing defeat for Racing 92 beaten 31-27 by Exeter.
Despite this new capitulation to an English team in a European Cup final, a big THANK YOU for your success in the knockout stages, THANK YOU for your grit and determination, THANK YOU for the performance you gave and those thrills and emotions worthy of major events! We are already looking forward to a new chance to triumph in the European Cup 2020-2021!
Actively supporting the Racing 92 rugby team since 2007, Natixis has accompanied the club as it won a series of major titles. Natixis is proud not only to have seen the team progress over the years (it won the Brennus shield – the trophy awarded to the winners of the French rugby union league – in 2016 in exceptional circumstances in Barcelona in front of a crowd of 98,000 spectators) but also to support one of the foremost training centers in the TOP14.
Photo credit: Racing 92