A year on from losing an 11-try classic by a point in last year’s Heineken Cup, Racing Metro got their revenge with a 15-3 victory over Edinburgh in a match as dire as the 2011 vintage was magnificent at Murrayfield last night.
In dreadful conditions of driving rain throughout, Edinburgh went meekly to their fourth defeat out of four just a year after reaching the last four of the competition thanks to the accurate boot of the Parisians’ full-back Gaetan Germain, who kicked four out of five attempts.
Edinburgh in contrast missed five penalties, four of them by new stand-off Piers Francis, but they did not deserve to take anything from the game and barely threatened to score their first try in this year’s competition.
Fielding a side clearly intended to save top players for the next fortnight’s doubleheader of 1872 Cup matches against Glasgow, the only bright spots for Edinburgh were the performances of the three remaining regulars, Grant Gilchrist, Greg Tonks and Ross Ford, who had possibly his best game of the season.
The former Scotland hooker hit most of his lineouts and was a major force in the loose, but his opposite number, the French international Dmitri Swarzewski, was a clear man of the match in which there were few candidates.
Edinburgh have now scored just 12 points and no tries in their four games to follow up last year’s historic campaign when they became the first Scottish side to reach the Heineken Cup semi-finals.
The capital side’s recast backline with only Tonks retained from last week in Paris didn’t have the most auspicious of starts, Ben Atiga overrunning their first handling move and being called for crossing, Ollie Barkley nailing the penalty chance from 35 metres.
The first scrum didn’t go much better, with the home side penalised again near halfway and this time Germain stepping forward to land the longer attempt for a 6-0 lead for Racing inside eight minutes.
Edinburgh’s first chance came in 13 minutes but Francis’ penalty from 40 metres was way off target, and his second from similar distance after 21 minutes when Racing were unlucky to be penalised just as they secured a turnover was just as far wide to the right.
But the new man’s well-judged field kicking got Racing turning in the wet and produced a third penalty chance when the Frenchmen illegally stopped a driving maul, Francis this time making the kick from closer range.
Racing were lucky not to be a man down after Ross Ford made a storming run from halfway deep into the 22 only for the retreating French to blantantly interfere and obstruct, but Francis couldn’t make the kick from the acute angle.
Barkley however missed a long penalty chance for Racing and Dougie Fife made a fine slide through the wet to mop up after Juan Imhof’s grubber kick produced the only try-scoring threat on the last play of an uninspiring half.
Edinburgh got another break when Germain hit the post with a penalty after a scrum collapse, but Francis was again wide right when the home side’s Greg Tonks won a penalty with the kick and chase.
But Netani Talei’s pointless late hit on Barkley allowed German to stretch Racing’s lead to 9-3 and saw the Fijian, three times man of the match in last year’s European campaign, sent to the sin-bin.
Irish ref Dudley Phillips quickly levelled the yellow card count with Eddy Ben Arous sent to the bin, but Greg Tonks fared no better than Francis with the resultant penalty from 40 metres.
And the home side paid dearly when Ben Cairns got isolated near halfway and Edinburgh were penalised, Germain made light of the toughest penalty chance to put his side 12-3 clear, adding another with ten minutes left.
Edinburgh’s final flurry into the Racing 22 ended with yet another knock-on of the slippery ball and Richie Rees’ interception close to the line as the Frenchmen pressed late on ensured the game ended try-less.
Attendance 3386
Edinburgh: G Tonks; L Jones, B Cairns (S Visser 75), B Atiga (G Hunter 63), D Fife; P Francis, C Leck (R Rees 68); J Yapp (A Jacobsen 49), R Ford, G Cross (WP Nel 49); R McAlpine (P Parker 49), G Gilchrist; S McInally, R Grant (capt), N Talei. Reps: A Titterall, A Jacobsen, W P Nel, P Parker, D Basilaia, R Rees, G Hunter, S Visser.
Racing Metro 92: G Germain; S Bobo, G Bousses, A Dumoulin, J Imhoff; O Barkley (J M Hernandez 70), S Descons; E Ben Arous, D Szwarzewski, L Ducalcon (J P Orlando 67); K Ghezal, F van der Merwe; A Batut, B Le Roux (A Galindo 50), J Cronje (capt).
Referee: D Phillips (IRFU).