Eye Gouging

Josaia Raisuqe was sent off for this incident against CJ Stander

Stade Francais 27 / 7 Munster

Stade Francais winger Josaia Raisuqe was sent off but the French champions still easily beat Munster in their Champions Cup match in Paris.

Raisuqe was sent off on the stroke of halftime for gouging Munster’s CJ Stander as they wrestled for the ball.

Paul Williams, Sekou Macalou and Hugo Bonneval crossed for Stade who are 4 points behind pool leaders Leicester.

A late Conor Murray try prevented Munster suffering their first shut-out in 21 years of European rugby.

The Irish side are now out of the Champions Cup – barring a miracle series of results – after suffering 3 pool defeats in a row for the 1st time.

Munster were dealt a series of early blows with the loss of tighthead prop BJ Botha and fullback Andrew Conway through injury.

The opening try on 32 minutes stemmed from a burst by Waisea Nayacalevu, which led to Williams picking his angle between forwards Dave Kilcoyne and Dave Foley to score under the posts.

Morné Steyn converted and added a penalty for a 10 / 0 lead.

Munster then lost Tommy O’Donnell despite the flanker initially returning from a head injury assessment.

Stade were reduced to 14 men when Raisuqe was shown by replays on the stadium’s giant screens to have put his hand in Stander’s eye as they wrestled for the ball after World Cup final referee Nigel Owens had blown the whistle.

The chorus of boos was deafening as Ian Keatley kicked – and missed – the resulting penalty and the noise only intensified as the Welsh referee walked off at halftime.

Steyn added a 2nd penalty before Munster saw Rory Scannell’s try ruled out for a forward pass.

Stade Francais flanker Macalou then tore clear for a try before fullback Bonneval beat Simon Zebo to score a 3rd, although the Munster fullback combined with Scannell to create Murray’s consolation effort with 5 minutes remaining.

 

Stade Francais: Bonneval, Arias, Nayacalevu, Williams, Raisuqe, Steyn, Dupuy, Taulafo, Sempere, Alo-Emile, Pyle, Gabrillagues, Macalou, Nicolas, Parisse.
Replacements: Plisson for Bonneval (72), Danty for Arias (50), Tomas for Dupuy (70), van der Merwe for Taulafo (52), Panis for Sempere (47), Slimani for Alo-Emile (46), Mostert for Gabrillagues (72).
Not used: Montague-Ross.

Sent-off: Raisuqe (40).

Munster: Conway, Earls, Saili, R Scannell, Zebo, Keatley, Murray, Kilcoyne, Sherry, Botha, Foley, Chisholm, Copeland, O’Donnell, Stander.
Replacements: N Scannell for Sherry (68), Sagario for Botha (57), B Holland for Chisholm (78).
Not used: J Ryan, O’Donoghue, O’Leary, Hurley, R O’Mahony.

Stade Francais (10) 27
Tries: Williams, Macalou, Bonneval
Conversions: Steyn 3
Penalties: Steyn 2
Munster (0) 7
Tries: Murray
Conversions: R Scannell

 

Racing 92 34 / 10 Glasgow Warriors

Glasgow Warriors’ Champions Cup hopes suffered a significant setback as they were comprehensively beaten by Pool 3 leaders Racing 92 in Paris.

Tries from Ben Tameifuna, Dimitri Szarzewski, Eddy Ben Arous and Manuel Carizza secured a bonus point in a dominant display from the home pack.

Dan Carter contributed 12 points with the boot as the French side moved 7 points clear of Northampton.

Leone Nakarawa crossed for a consolation try for Warriors.

Finn Russell and Carter traded penalties in an opening half hour littered with handling errors and turnovers.

After a subdued start to the match, delayed after the Paris attacks in November, Racing showed their class to score the game’s opening try.

With Carter pulling the Warriors defence one way and then the other, No 8 Chris Masoe blasted through to the brink of the tryline, before prop Tameifuna ploughed over from close range. Carter added the conversion and another penalty to give the home side a 13 / 3 halftime lead.

If Racing started the 1st half in sluggish fashion, there was to be no repeat in the 2nd period as they powered over the line with an unstoppable rolling maul. Captain Szarzewski was the man to ground the ball, with Carter again on target with the conversion.

Warriors now had no response to the power of the French pack, and Ben Arous scored in almost identical fashion as Racing surged way in front at 27 / 3.

A smart lineout move allowed Nakarawa to dive over as Glasgow refused to throw in the towel, but yet another powerful driving maul sent Carizza over the line for Racing’s 4th try in the final play of the game.

Carter has quickly become a favourite of the Racing fans, and although he did not hit top gear, he never really had to as he effortlessly pulled the strings.

The double World Cup winner did the simple things well; bringing his big ball carriers into the line, kicking well from hand and perfectly at goal, nailing all 5 attempts from the tee.

The All Blacks great departed on 56 minutes to a rousing reception from the Parisian crowd.

The defending PRO12 champions Glasgow Warriors sit in the bottom half of the PRO12 table, and this defeat – their 3rd in a row in all competitions – leaves their European aspirations very much in the balance.

They visit Northampton next before ending their campaign against Racing at Scotstoun, and will have to win both matches in order to have any chance of reaching the quarterfinals.

Racing 92: Goosen, Imhoff, Chavancy, Dumoulin, Andreu, Carter, Machenaud, Ben Arous, Szarzewski, Tameifuna, Charteris, Carizza, Lauret, Nyanga, Masoe.
Replacements: Dulin for Carter (56), Phillips for Machenaud (74), Brugnaut for Ben Arous (56), Chat for Szarzewski (52), Ducalcon for Tameifuna (52), Le Roux for Lauret (54), Claassen for Masoe (72).
Not Used: Laulala.

Glasgow Warriors: Hogg, Naiyaravoro, Bennett, Russell, Lamont, Weir, Price, Reid, MacArthur, Fagerson, Nakarawa, Gray, Wilson, Fusaro, Ashe.
Replacements: Jones for Naiyaravoro (52), G Bryce for Lamont (66), Johnson for Weir (73), Allan for Reid (64), Brown for MacArthur (52), Puafisi for Fagerson (64), Blake for Fusaro (61), Peterson for Ashe (52).

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

Racing 92: (13) 34
Tries: Tameifuna, Szarzewski, Ben Arous, Carizza
Penalties: Carter 2
Conversions: Carter 3, Goosen
Glasgow Warriors: (3) 10
Try: Nakarawa
Penalties: Russell
Conversions: Russell

 

bbc

5 Responses to European Rugby Champions Cup: Big wins for Stade Francais and Racing Metro

  • 1

    He will be lucky if he escapes with a ban of less than 12 weeks.

  • 2

    1 @ dWeePer:
    Hi dWeePer would think that must be the minimum, even way back in 2009 Schalk Burger got an 8 week ban, after getting a yellow card. As time has gone on World Rugby has appeared to be more strict on foul play and so we saw Josia Raisuqe get a straight red for this. Don’t know anything about his record so not sure if any of his sentence will be reduced or not.

  • 3

    @ dWeePer:
    Have not seen anything about when his hearing will be, had a look on EPC Rugby (European Rugby) site and can’t find anything on it, in fact this is what they report on the incident in the match report:
    “Raisuqe was sent off World Cup Final referee Nigel Owens on the stroke of half-time for putting his hand near the eyes of Munster captain CJ Stander as the pair wrestled for the ball.” From that picture it looks to me like it wasn’t only putting a hand near the eyes but clearly at least one finger in the eye!

  • 4

    Here is some footage of the Raisuqe incident, think CJ shows remarkable constraint afterwards, captain leading from the front:

  • 5

    4 @ Bullscot:
    Hope the crowd booing was for the incident and not for the card being issued.

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