Former All Black shines in Siya Kolisi's debut for Racing 92
Siya Kolisi’s highly anticipated debut for Racing 92 was the story of the night in Paris but a former All Black has been praised for shutting down French star Jonathan Danty.
The Springbok captain made his first appearance for Racing 92 and finished a winner as the Parisian club defeated defending European champions La Rochelle 32-10 at the Paris La Defense Arena.
Key to the victory was the performance of former All Black and Blues midfielder Francis Saili, who joined Racing 92 last year from Biarritz.
In partnership with Gael Fickou the Racing midfield defence was strong, holding France star Jonathan Danty to just 15 metres on five carries for La Rochelle.
Saili provided the assist on Racing’s first try of the night to Juan Imhoff in the third minute with the final pass for the blistering Argentinian winger.
On defence the former Blues centre completed 11 of 14 tackles in a busy performance, while adding turnover.
He was rated as one of the top two performers on the night along with his midfield partner Fickou.
“The number 12 of Racing 92 won his duel against Jonathan Danty,” wrote
the New Zealander did the job.”“At a fairly crazy start to the match, where both teams decided to play a lot, he was decisive by extending his pass to Juan Imhoff who scored the first of Racing’s four tries.”
Forming Racing 92 star Teddy Thomas aided his old club after being red carded for La Rochelle following a coat-hanger tackle after chasing his own kick in the 24th minute.
Racing 92 never gave up the lead as they closed out the win with a man advantage.
Capped England winger Henry Arundell scored another Top 14 try, producing a classy finish to give Racing the bonus point.
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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