Racing 92 made it two from two against PRO14 opposition as they disposed of Ulster 44-12 in ther Champions Cup encounter in Paris on Saturday.
The Northern Irish resistance didn’t quite match that of the Welsh last week and a bonus point win puts the French outfit in firm control of Pool Four.
The Ulsterman did initially come racing out of the blocks in the French capital and raced out of their 22 in similar fashion to score the game’s first points.
Michael Lowry made the initial break before the recycled ball allowed Will Addison to attack the Racing line and offload for David Shanahan.
A Finn Russell penalty cut the gap to four points but his opposite number Billy Burns kicked two perfectly weighted cross kicks to construct Ulster’s second try. First Craig Gilroy went close before the ball found Burns again who switched the play to Jacob Stockdale on the left and the winger scored to make it 12-3.
The Parisians were suitably shocked into life and 17 points in the final 12 minutes of the half demonstrated their clinical nature. Replacement halfback Teddy Iribaren cleverly let an attacking scrum turn allowing Antonie Claassen to break off and send him over.
Four minutes after Racing came again and, after some initial breaks around the fringes, centre Olivier Klemenczak cut an excellent line and popped the ball to the onrushing Wenceslas Lauret who’s long leavers saw him reach the line. Russell kicked a further penalty to make it 22-12 at the break.
The French side continued the second 40 in the same vain. Klemenczak breaking some weak Ulster tackles once again and had Juan Imhoff as a grateful recipient in support. Russell kicked another conversion and a further penalty to make it 30-12 with 50 minutes gone.
The fourth and decisive score came ten minutes from the end. Russell being his mercurial self off first phase. A Racing scrum on their own 22 left space behind and the Scotsman chipped and gathered his own kick before sending Teddy Thomas racing clear to score the pick of the tries.
Now playing without pressure and knowing their task had been fulfilled the Racingmen exerted true French flair and Simon Zebo scored in the corner after the ball had been shipped wide to round off the scoring.
The scorers:
For Racing 92:
Tries: Iribaren, Lauret, Imhoff, Thomas, Zebo
Cons: Russell 4, Iribaren
Pens: Russell 3
For Ulster:
Tries: Shanahan, Stockdale
Con: Burns
Yellow card: Timoney
Racing 92: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Olivier Klemenczak, 12 Henry Chavancy (c), 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Xavier Chauveau, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Leone Nakarawa, 4 Dominic Bird, 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Guram Gogichashvili
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Vasil Kakovin, 18 Census Johnston, 19 Fabien Sanconnie, 20 Jordan Joseph, 21 Teddy Iribaren, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Léonard Paris
Ulster: 15 Michael Lowry, 14 Craig Gilroy, 13 Will Addison, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Billy Burns, 9 David Shanahan 8 Nick Timoney, 7 Jordi Murphy, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Kieran Treadwell, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Marty Moore, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Andrew Warwick
Replacements: 16 Adam McBurney, 17 Eric O’Sullivan, 18 Ross Kane, 19 Adam O’Connor, 20 Sean Reidy, 21 James Stewart, 22 Johhny McPhillips, 23 Angus Kernohan
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Dan Jones (Wales), Wayne Davies (Wales)
Television match official: Ian Davies (Wales)