Racing 92 44 Ulster 12

Two tries in the first 21 minutes wasn’t enough for Ulster as Racing 92 ran in five scores to secure a bonus point win in Paris. Dave Shanahan, starting at scrum half for the injured John Cooney, broke the deadlock on five minutes as he finished off a sweeping move that started on his own 22. Form a scrum, outhalf Billy Burns led the initial counter attack and he fed Michael Lowry, the fullback showed his pace to carry deep into Racing territory before offloading to Craig Gilroy. The ball was quickly recycled and centre Will Addison punched a hole in the defence, and with Shanahan on his shoulder, showed soft hands to put the pivot under the posts. Burns converted for a 0-7 lead. Racing hit back immediately with Scotland outhalf Finn Russell slotting over a penalty from in front of the posts. Nicky Timoney was sin binned on 15 minutes for lifting Fabien Sanconnie above the horizonal, but despite the numerical disadvantage, Jacob Stockdale got Ulster’s second try in the 21st minute. Burns secured scrappy ball from a lineout on the ground and the pack made a few hard yards. Burns put in a crossfield kick for Gilroy, before kicking to the other wing for Stockdale to catch and stroll over for an unconverted try. Racing responded with their first try on 27 minutes. From a scrum, the Parisians got a good nudge to expose Ulster’s blindside, number 8 Antonie Classen broke from the base and drew in Stockdale before putting replacement scrumhalf Teddy Iribaren over. Russell converted. Racing took the lead with their second try four minutes later. Iribaren cut through midfield, centre Olivier Klemenczak burst thought a weak tackle in the Ulster defence and was able to offload from the ground to flanker Wenceslas Lauret, who stretched to touch down. Russell again added the extras. Russell extended Racing’s lead to 20-12 at the interval with the last kick of the first half with penalty following another powerful scrum by the home team. Racing struck with their third try four minutes after the restart, Klemenczak’s footwork fooled the Ulster defence in midfield, he broke and gave a simple pass to Argentina winger Juan Imhoff, who went under the posts for a converted try. Russell extended Racing’s lead to 18 points with a simple penalty following a deliberate knock on from Marcell Coetzee. The home team wrapped up their bonus point in the 69th minute. Russell led a counter attack from his own 22, chipping over the Ulster defence, gathering and carrying deep into the visitors' territory before putting French winger Teddy Thomas under the posts. The Scottish outhalf then converted. Ireland fullback Simon Zebo rounded off Racing’s victory by running in a fifth try four minutes before the end, which Ben Volavola converted. RACING 92: S Zebo, T Thomas, O Klemenczak, H Chavancy, J Imhoff, F Russell, X Chauveau; G Gogichashvili, C Chat, C Gomes Sa, D Bird, L Nakarawa, W Lauret, B Le Roux, A Claasen. Replacements: T Baubigny for Chat 57 mins, V Kakovin for Gogichashvili 57 mins , C Johnston for Gomes 57 mins, F Sanconnie for Le Roux 59 mins, J Joseph for Claasen 57 mins, T Iribaren for Chauveau 24 mins, B Volavola for Russell 69 mins, L Paris for Klemenczak 65 mins ULSTER: M Lowry; C Gilroy, W Addison, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, D Shanahan; A Warwick, R Best, M Moore, I Henderson, K Treadwell, M Coetzee, J Murphy, N Timoney. Replacements: A McBurney for Best 57 mins, E O'Sullivan for Warwick 51 mins, R Kane for Moore 52 mins, A O'Connor for Treadwell 57 mins, S Reidy for Timoney 41 mins, J Stewart for Shanahan 74 mins, J McPhillips for Burns 44 mins, A Kernohan for Stockdale 57 mins