Maxime Machenaud’s Ronan O’Gara moment

Racing92 19 Toulon 16: There will, after all, be an Irish presence in the business end of the Champions Cup which the French and English have taken over this season with Ronan O’Gara’s Racing 92 ending the three-year reign of Toulon in Paris yesterday.

Appropriately, and indeed inevitably the way these heavyweight contests are decided, it came down to the place-kickers but it wasn’t the man who Racing spent a fortune on who delivered the goods.

Dan Carter’s kicking duties ended in the first- half when he went down nursing a heavily strapped knee and while he continued to the end, scrum-half Maxime Machenaud took over with the tee. The French international was far from flawless and his miss from 30 metres in front of the posts with six minutes left with the sides deadlocked at 16-16 looked set to provide the opening for Toulon, as they have done so often in dominating Europe for the past three years, to counter and snatch the win.