Racing put on a rugby masterclass to humiliate Harlequins in European Cup

 Harlequins  7  Racing 92  49 

European Champions Cup – Sunday 20^th December 2020

Harlequins are still looking for their first victory and point of this season’s competition after suffering a heavy 49-7 defeat to Racing 92 at the Stoop on Sunday.

The three-time finalists were in scintillating form, running in seven tries with Scotland fly-half Finn Russell running the show.

It took the French side just three minutes to open the scoring after a missed tackle from Will Evans allowed Teddy Thomas to brush aside a couple of players to score.

After 16 minutes Racing scored their second try of the afternoon from an attacking line out and driving maul saw Kevin Le Guen at the back of the maul shoved over.

By half time, Racing were firmly in control after a long-range penalty kick from Maxime Machenaud sailed over the posts to give the visitors a 20-0 lead at the interval.

Harlequins’ day went from bad to worse straight from the kick off. Within 37 seconds of the restart, Simon Zebo gathered Danny Care’s box kick to dot down in the corner.

After Quins had lost Scott Steele to the sin bin, Racing claimed the try bonus point from a line out as replacement prop Georges-Henri Colombe was driven over from the maul.

Finn was in exceptional form all afternoon and it was his cross field kick that set up racing’s fifth try with Dominic Taofifenau dotting down.

There was scant consolation for Quins who had to wait until the 61^st minute for their firsts points on the board following a breakaway try that was finished off by Steele following an offload from James Chisholm.

There was no rest bite for the hosts who conceded another try when Teddy Baubigny smashed his way over from close range before Francois Trinh-Duc went over with three minutes remaining.

To complete Quins misery a brilliant try from Alex Dombrandt was chalked off after the TMO spotted a foul leading up to the try.

The result was Harlequins heaviest home loss in any European competition, and also leaves changes of qualification highly unlikely.

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