Saracens vs. Racing 92: Score, Reaction from 2016 European Champions Cup Final
Saracens finished their undefeated 2015-16 European Champions Cup campaign with a 21-9 win over Racing 92 during the final on Sunday, winning their first-ever European title.
Owen Farrell took care of all the scoring with his boot, as Sunday's clash in Lyon was an ugly, tactical affair that suited Saracens' physical style of play perfectly. Racing lost a couple of key contributors during the match, but that shouldn't diminish Saracens' superb outing, as the Premiership side dominated most of the afternoon.
As shared by BBC Sport’s Andrew Sheridan, the final was plagued by heavy rain, which affected both teams early:
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George Kruis got tangled trying to catch a ball and veteran star Dan Carter fired his first pass at the feet of his team-mate, but Saracens didn’t fare much better, giving away a penalty after five minutes for a poor scrum.
The usually reliable Maxime Machenaud stepped up and promptly booted the ball wide from 22 yards out, and per The42.ie Rugby, it wasn’t the only error either side made:
Saracens opted against fluid passing combinations, given the rough conditions, and instead aimed to isolate players out wide or kick the ball over the top of the French defence. Richard Wigglesworth and Farrell found some success, but Racing defended well with their backs against the wall.
That didn’t stop Farrell from giving the Brits the lead from the tee after Ben Tameifuna was penalised for the scrum, just before the rain got even worse.
Carter kept struggling with his handling and even appeared to be limping slightly at one point in the first half, but the Parisiens kept the pressure on following a nice kick from Brice Dulin.
Saracens prop Petrus du Plessis messed up the lineout, allowing Johan Goosen to try his luck from the tee from a long way out, and somehow, the 23-year-old powered the ball through the sticks, despite the rain.
Sky Sports Rugby shared his position on the pitch:
Farrell tried to restore the lead with a drop-goal shortly after, but the rainy pitch made it difficult to lift the ball once it hit the turf. He eventually converted from the tee, after Eddy Ben Arous was penalised for being on the wrong side of the maul.
Kruis spilled yet another routine ball, this time from the restart, and Carter nearly opened up Saracens’ defence with a smart kick. Fortunately for the Sarries, Wigglesworth had it covered.
Racing lost Machenaud to a head injury, with Mike Phillips replacing the Frenchman, and he immediately made a mistake in the ruck to hand the ball to the opponents. That eventually led to another penalty, which Farrell easily converted to make it 9-3.
The French side answered by attacking Saracens' defence head on, catching the visitors offside, and Goosen reduced the deficit back to three points. The final blow would be struck by Saracens, however, as Farrell converted yet another penalty, to the delight of his team's official Twitter account:
Carter was forced to leave the pitch early in the second half with an injury, another major blow for Racing, and Saracens responded by targeting replacement Remi Tales to see how he would handle the pressure.
Dimitri Szarzewski was penalised for diving on what he perceived as a loose ball, but referee Nigel Owens disagreed with his claim it had rolled past the last Saracens' foot, handing the Brits yet another penalty from an easy spot.
That allowed Farrell to push the lead to nine points, and with Carter's replacement Tales struggling, Racing's bid to win the Champions Cup seemed doomed. A mental error from Jackson Wray allowed Goosen to put three more points on the board, but Saracens never seemed troubled again in the second half.
A bad hit on Maro Itoje allowed Farrell to kick another routine penalty with five minutes left to play, and that score broke Racing's resolve. One more kick would lead to the final score of 21-9, a deserved win for the British giants.
Itoje was glad his team finally won their first European title, as he told BT Sport (h/t BBC Sport's Mike Henson):
"We have had big disappointments but each time we have come back stronger and we are happy to finally done it. We knew this was a game we could win, we had the form coming into the game, we knew if we do what we do, dominate the gameline, then we could win and thank god we did.
We will enjoy tonight and build on from there.
"
The loss of Carter and Machenaud greatly hampered Racing, but even with those two stars, the French side likely wouldn't have found a way past Saracens. Sarries won all of their European Champions Cup matches this year, most by a huge margin, and they were always favourites to win the final, especially in such rough conditions.
The Wolf Pack finally overcame their European demons on Saturday, and given the wealth of young talent in the team's ranks, there's no reason to believe they won't be favourites for the title again next season.
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