| Racing 92 (20) 48 |
| Tries: Kamikamica, Kolisi, Tabuavou, Tedder, Wade, Baudonne, Tarrit Cons: Tedder 5 Pens: The Load |
| Cardiff (12) 26 |
| Tries: Carre, T Williams 2, deBeer Cons: the Bear 3 |
Cardiff bowed out of Europe with an Investec Champions Cup defeat in Paris against Racing 92.
Tristan Tedder scored 15 points with tries from Kitione Kamikamika, Siya Kolisi, Inia Tabuavou, Christian Wade, Maxime Baudonne and Janick Tarrit.
Cardiff scrum-half Tomos Williams scored two tries with Rhys Carre and Tinus de Beer also crossing.
Racing 92 leapfrogged Ulster into fourth place in Pool 2 to secure a last-16 spot.
Ulster have been eliminated from Europe’s top-tier tournament and drop down to the Challenge Cup knockout stages in April.
Racing 92 have assembled a star-studded squad with flanker Kolisi producing a brilliant performance in the seven-try victory.
Cardiff have suffered European elimination after finishing bottom of the group. It was a seventh successive Champions Cup defeat for Cardiff on the pitch, either side of a match cancelled due to Covid-19 against Toulouse in January 2022. That is the first Cardiff have suffered that record in 20 years.
This loss against the Top 14 leaders means Matt Sherratt’s side have suffered four straight defeats in this campaign and conceded 193 points.
So for all the optimism around the Arms Park following capacity home crowds, new contracts for young players Mackenzie Martin, Cam Winnett and Alex Mann – who are among a Cardiff contingent of 11 in Warren Gatland’s Wales squad – Cardiff have only won three out of 13 games this season, with nine defeats and a draw.
All to play for
Ulster’s 47-19 defeat at Harlequins meant both sides came into the game with a chance of progressing to the knockout stages despite three defeats for each team. Racing 92 may top their domestic league but had lost seven of their last eight matches in Europe coming into this contest.
Flanker Ellis Jenkins returned to captain Cardiff among seven changes from the record European home loss to Harlequins last week.
New Wales squad member Martin was promoted from the bench along with Efan Daniel, while Jacob Beetham, Rory Thornton, Aled Summerhill and Ben Thomas all started.
Racing made six changes from the loss at Bath, including a return for ex-England wing Wade and Juan Imhoff with wing Henry Arundell dropping out and captain Gael Fickou, World Cup-winning skipper Kolisi and Wales lock Will Rowlands retaining their places.
Racing opened the scoring through a Nolann Le Carrec penalty before Cardiff prop Carre, who was again overlooked by Wales for the Six Nations after missing the World Cup, powered over having been involved twice in the move.
Racing’s power was on show when hooker Camille Chat appeared to have finished a driving line-out but the try was ruled out for obstruction.
The hosts’ wait did not go on too long as number eight Kamikamica latched onto a cross kick to capitalise on a chargedown from Cameron Woki.
Kolisi scored his own try and then turned provider, with slick hands releasing centre Tabuavou to sprint away for the third score before Martin was forced off injured and replaced by Lopeti Timani.
Cardiff were not initially affected by the change with centre Thomas scything through and providing an inside pass to supporting scrum-half Williams to score as the visitors trailed by eight points at half-time.
Any hopes of an away upset were dashed by a Racing 21-point scoring spree in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
Cardiff were guilty of conceding possession and a loose kick from scrum-half Williams was punished by Tedder with a brilliant counter-attacking try, as he powered through an attempted Summerhill tackle.
A quick Le Garrec tap penalty took advantage of a lazy Cardiff defence with the ball worked to Wade who outwitted Mason Grady to score.
The home onslaught continued as replacement flanker Baudonne capitalised on a cross kick from fly-half Antoine Gibert.
Williams, who is leaving Cardiff for Gloucester next season, never gave up and was rewarded with his second try after charging down a Tedder kick.
Cardiff’s resilience was further demonstrated with a bonus-point try from de Beer but Summerhill was shown a late yellow card for a professional foul with replacement hooker Tarrit finishing the scoring at the Defense Arena.
Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt told S4C: “We wanted to show fight and give people a good match to watch and we did both of those things.
“I can’t be prouder of the players’ efforts. They were Up against it, they showed a lot of courage and scored four cracking tries.
“There’s a tinge of disappointment. We’ve got to get better at certain things. We’re giving teams too many easy scores and we’ve got to get that out of our game.
“But I’ve got to speak to myself about that because that’s what you get with so many young players. They are learning right at the sharp end against some of the best operators in world rugby.”
Racing 92: T Tedders; C Wade, G Fickou (capt), I Tabuavou, J Imhoff; A Gibert, N Le Garrec; Kolingar, C Chat, T Nayakane, C Woki, Rowlands, W Diallo, S Kolisi, H Kamikamica.
Replacements: J Tarrit, E Ben Arous, G Kharishvili, F Sanconnie, M Baudonne, C Le Bail, D Klemenczak, D Taofifenua.
Cardiff: J Beetham; A Summerhill; R Lee-Lo, B Thomas, M Grady; T de Beer, T Williams; R Carre, E Daniel, K Assiratti, T Williams, R Thornton, A Mann, E Jenkins (c), M Martin.
Replacements: D Hughes, R Barratt, R Litterick, S Davies, L Timani, T Young, E Bevan, O Lane.
Referee: Christophe Ridley (England)
Assistant referees: Jack Makepeace & Simon Harding (England)
TMO: Tom Foley (England).
