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Magnificent Montpellier retain Top 14 lead with Racing thrashing
By Christopher Devine
Top 14 leaders Montpellier bounced back from their shock defeat to Agen in style on Saturday with a 41-3 trouncing of second-placed Racing 92.
Jan Serfontein ran in two tries, while Nico Janse van Rensburg, Timoci Nagusa and Louis Picamoles all crossed in the second half as Vern Cotter's men cantered past their nearest rivals and made it 10 league wins from 10 on home soil this term.
The only negative for Montpellier came when Nagusa suffered an apparent knee injury in the act of scoring his side's fourth try.
Racing would have replaced their opponents as Top 14 leaders with a victory at Altrad Stadium, but the visitors were ultimately outclassed.
A moment of magic from Serfontein produced the only touchdown of the first half, the South Africa centre skilfully chipping over the top of the Racing defence before collecting his own kick to score.
Montpellier led 13-3 at the interval, Ruan Pienaar adding a conversion and two penalties prior to a solitary three-pointer from Pat Lambie, before effectively wrapping up victory with two tries in the first five minutes of the second period.
Martin Devergie's superb offload sent Janse van Rensburg clear down the right wing and Serfontein crashed over from first receiver, with Pienaar converting both touchdowns.
Racing were unable to hit back even when home prop Jannie du Plessis was yellow-carded and late tries from Nagusa and Louis Picamoles rounded off a superb afternoon for Montpellier.
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Latest Comments
Agreed. A very good comparison. On the day they can beat anyone.
You can never be sure which team is pitching up until the whistle blows.
I think Contemponi is a fabulous coach.
Go to commentsUmm - really?
He goes on to say that they just need to deal with the Bok scrums, lineouts and territorial game. Those are not one or two little things ...
Besides, I suspect Tony Brown would like to see his new attacking philosophy clicking against Wales. That involves a lot more than set pieces and kicking. And Gatland might want to be ready for it.
For me the big question is whether the Boks retain their shape and intensity, regardless of the scoreline. If they do that then it could be a cricket score.
But there have been times this year when we have seen them get into a kind of error strewn, shelter shelter, hot potato mode on attack. Hope we don't see that, because it is silly and ineffective. Also boring.
I would love to see the new Bok plan in full flight. But, sadly, my expectation is that we will be another England-like post-game interview, with Rassie "taking the win" but declaring that they did not play the way they intended to.
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