For the 11th day of the championship, Stade Toulousain beat Racing 92 in Créteil (17-21). The Rouge et Noir will remain leaders at the end of the weekend.
After suffering the domination of Toulouse for 40 minutes, Racing 92 revolted without managing to overthrow the champion, who finally won 21-17 on Saturday in Créteil at the opening of the 11th day of the Top 14.
Outclassed by Stade Français (40-24) last weekend in the Ile-de-France derby, Racing feared the arrival of the reigning champions, who even without Dupont, Mauvaka, Meafou or other Blues left to rest looked good with Ramos, Ntamack or Marchand.
These fears quickly proved to be justified, as Stuart Lancaster's players suffered from the overwhelming domination of Toulouse during the first period. Cornered in their camp, undisciplined (11 penalties in the first period), the Ile-de-France residents were fortunate to only return to the locker room trailing 11-0, helped by Toulouse's blunders.
First period completed
Shaken in the second period, Toulouse managed to get back on track to secure a second victory after that against Perpignan (41-9), consolidating its leadership position. The match immediately got off to a bad start for Racing, with South African full-back Tristan Tedder cut out by Argentinian center Santiago Chocobares and conceding a penalty on the halfway line, missed by Ramos.
But even if the Red and Black monopolized the ball, they struggled to string together playing times, and it was in force, after a maul (33rd), that the omnipresent English third line Jack Willis scored the first try of the match. A few minutes later, Toulouse failed to take cover, making a mistake on a new maul (37th) which seemed to be a test.
Express return of Racing 92
Coming back with completely different intentions from the locker room, Racing was much more aggressive, in turn pushing the visitors to increase the number of mistakes. Hooker Janick Tarrit sounded the revolt behind a maul (46th), before a few minutes later, Jordan Joseph, also off the bench, doubled the lead (54th), facing Toulouse reduced to 14 for a fault of Chocobares.
Now fierce in the fight, the Ile-de-France residents recovered a ground penalty, converted by Nolann Le Garrec (68th). But a final try from Merkler (72nd), transformed by Ramos despite his difficulties at the goal of the day, allowed Toulouse to regain the score, sealed with a new penalty (75th).
