Second-half Bordeaux onslaught enough to undo Racing

Bordeaux-Begles' New Zealand wing Ben Lam. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Bordeaux Begles: 36 Racing 92: 16

Three unanswered Bordeaux tries in quick succession early in the second half exploded what was until then a mediocre Top 14 barrage-round play-off, as they beat Racing 92 36-16 to book a semi-final against Montpellier in Nice on Saturday.

First, La Rochelle-bound centre UJ Sueteni burst on to Yoram Moefana’s over-the-top offload to take the hosts into a 15-13 lead, five minutes into the second period. Minutes later, with the partisan crowd at at Stade Chaban Delmas already celebrating, Romain Buros raced onto Sueteni’s clever kick ahead and rounded a rooted Teddy Thomas to extend Bordeaux’s lead to nine points.

And Cameron Woki added the third before the hour, as the hosts’ internationals responded in the best possible way to head coach Christophe Urios’ strongly worded public criticism of his star players after their loss at Perpignan in the final round of the regular season.

“Cameron, I didn’t see him, Matthieu [Jalibert], I didn’t see him,” Urios had fumed following their anonymous performances in defeat at Stade Aime Giral.

Until Bordeaux’s second-half burst, the match had offered precious little to write home about.

If the previous evening’s meeting between Toulouse and La Rochelle was a final ahead of its time, Sunday’s game - between two equally starry sides, often capable of the same levels of brilliance but as equally unpredictable - was all nervous energy and little notion.

Urios was uncannily accurate in his expectations in the week leading up to the match. Racing, he insisted, were ‘capable of anything’.

“Like us, they are a bit unpredictable, through their season and their game," he said.

And so they were, but not in a good way.

Bordeaux should not have been here. At the end of January, they had a 10-point lead at the top of the table. But 10 defeats in 12 matches eventually ripped the semi-final pass from their pocket on the final weekend.

Racing very nearly missed the play-offs altogether. An hour into their must-win round-26 match against Toulon, they were heading for a finish outside the top six for the first time since 2009. But they dragged themselves in front to finish in the last of the play-off places.

The first half was a maelstrom of midfield mediocrity, enlivened by Santiago Cordero’s 19th-minute try - the Argentinian left with a run-in after Maxime Lucu’s quick-thinking quick-tap penalty in his own half left the Racing defence leaden-footed.

The visitors finally found a response a minute from half-time, young fullback Max Spring finding himself in acres of space thanks to Ben Volavola’s perfectly judged pass after Racing played the phases following a penalty kick to the 5m line, to take the visitors into the break in the lead.

But it would not last long, with Bordeaux’s three-try combination deciding matters before the clock ticked past the hour, before Ben Lam iced the cake with one last touchdown in front of the Chaban Delmas faithful ahead of his move to Montpellier at the end of the season.

The result means that the sides that finished in the top four places in the league - Castres, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Toulouse, will contest the semi-finals.

La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara had only praise for Toulouse’s Antoine Dupont after the scrum-half again lived up to his reputation as the best player in the world on Saturday evening.

“We saw a great Dupont, a magnificent number nine in great shape,” O’Gara said after the match. “He is capable of killing a team with half a chance - and he did that two or three times. We had no one close to his level on the pitch.” The France international made one try and scored another in the opening 12 minutes and was a constant threat on a sultry evening at Stade Ernest Wallon, with the temperature hovering around 30C. The hosts scored twice more in a second 12-minute blitz in the second half to seal the match.

Despite a determined, bloody-minded performance from La Rochelle, who scored four tries of their own, including two in the closing two minutes, Toulouse won 33-28.

Their reward - a semi-final against Top 14 table-toppers and derby neighbours Castres in Nice on Friday evening.

Earlier on Sunday, Perpignan became the first Top 14 side to survive a promotion-relegation play-off, beating Mont-de-Marsan 16-41 at Stade Andre et Guy Boniface to ensure a second season in the French top flight.

Bordeaux: Buros (Trinh-Duc 64’); Cordero, Seuteni (Mori 60’), Moefana (Seuteni 74’), Lam (Mori 17’, Lam 30’); Jalibert (Buros 74’), Lucu (Lesgourgues 74’); Diaby, Vergnes, Woki; Marais (Picamoles 28’), Douglas (Roumat 65’); Tameifuna (Cobilas 46’), Lamothe (Maynadier 43’), Paiva (Poirot 46’).

Racing 92: Spring; Thomas, Vakatawa (Chavancy 65’), Fickou, Imhoff; Volavola (Gibert 69’), Le Garrec (Machenaud 53’); Diallo (Hemery 57’), Tanga, Lauret; Bresler (Palu 53’), Le Roux (Bresler 63’); Nyakane (Gomes Sa 48’), Baubigny (Chat 48’), Kolingar (Gogichashvili 31’).