HARLEQUITS
Gustard disgust as Quins slip to their heaviest European defeat ever
‘TWAS the nightmare before Christmas as Finn Russell’s Racing handed Harlequins their heaviest European defeat.
The Scotland star and his X X-factor pals from across the C Channel cut Quins to ribbons to dump dum them out of the Champ Champions Cup.
This was men against boys with Ra Racing, beaten in three of the l last five finals, helping themse t themselves to a magnificent seven tries.
Q Quins were dire and tea team boss Paul Gustard ad admitted: “There was not one facet of the game where we performed. We played against a team that was very good and we were anything but. “We were way off. Off in the warm-up, quiet, no bounce about us. No talk talk, no noise, no energy. Unfortunately we saw the consequences of t that. A really, really poor performance.” This was as complete a win as you will see, from the moment Teddy Thomas waltzed through a non- existent defence on Racing’s first attack.
The gulf in class was apparent long before the rampant Parisian outfit claimed the four-try bonus point with half an hour still to play. Russell ( left) eft) led Quins such a merry erry dance that at no o point was the result in doubt.
Unbeaten Wasps apart, this has been an awful tournament t for the English. Exeter Exd and Gloucester and have a win apiece but might not make the knockout stages.
Against opposition of this quality Quins needed everything to go right. Nothing did. They trailed 20-0 at half-time and two games in have yet to register a first-half point. Any hope of a resurgence ended 38 seconds after the restart when Simon Zebo (above) scored and from there the only question was how big a gubbing this would be.
Chris Ashton’s crass late challenge on Thomas, which overturned a consolation try for Alex Dombrandt, pretty well summed things up.
Racing were a joy to watch and captain Henry Chavancy admitting they are a team on a mission to avenge defeat in last seas season’s final. No one shone brighter than Russell, hailed as the “most naturally gifted fly-half in world rugby” by former Quins star Ugo Mony e . Ru Russell liked that, b but t passed the praise on to his forwards. “I imagine for teams facing us it’s quite daunting to come up against that power,” he said. Quins were not about to disagree.
HARLEQUINS - Try: Steele. Con: Smith.
RACING - Tries: Thomas, Le Guen, Zebo, Colombe, Taofifenua, Baubigny, TrinhDuc. Cons: Machenaud 3, Trinh-Duc 2.
Pens: Machenaud 2.
CLEAR FOR TAKE-OFF Simon Zebo of Racing gets airborne for a try in the second half