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Racing have scored 7 tries from kick returns, Exeter have scored 7 following a tap penalty...
By Online Editors
The countdown is on towards Saturday's eagerly-anticipated Champions Cup showpiece featuring Exeter Chiefs and Racing 92 at Bristol. Here are ten match facts ahead of the Anglo-French decider which has a 4.45pm kick-off at Ashton Gate:
1. This will be the first Heineken Champions Cup final involving a first European meeting between the two finalists since 2013 when Toulon defeated Clermont.
2. Either Exeter or Racing will become the twelfth different club to lift the Heineken Champions Cup. The Chiefs have reached the final for the first time in their history, while Racing will be appearing in the showpiece match for the third time having lost to Saracens in 2016 and Leinster in 2018.
3. This will be the eighth Anglo-French Heineken Champions Cup final with Gallagher Premiership clubs currently ahead by five wins to two.
4. Exeter are yet to lose in the Champions Cup this season (W7, D1), their longest unbeaten run in European competition. Should they defeat Racing it would be the fifth season in a row that the eventual champions have gone through the tournament unbeaten.
5. Racing have scored eleven tries in the 20 minutes leading up to half-time this season, more than any other side, while Exeter have scored the most in the 20-minute period directly after the break (twelve).
6. Racing have scored seven tries from kick returns, more than any other side, while the Chiefs have scored seven tries following a tap penalty – no other club has scored more than two in that manner this season.
7. Exeter have missed just three of their 40 place kicks and have the best goalkicking success rate as a result (93 per cent). Fly-half Joe Simmonds has the best success rate of any player to attempt more than five kicks at goal (94 per cent - 34/36).
8. Exeter have the top try scorer in the Heineken Champions Cup this season with No8 Sam Simmonds crossing seven times, while Racing’s Finn Russell leads the way for try assists (seven).
9. Virimi Vakatawa (Racing) has beaten 48 defenders, 19 more than any other player and Jack Nowell (Exeter) is one of three players tied second on 29 defenders beaten (level with Leinster’s Jordan Larmour and Lewis Ludlam of Northampton).
10. Exeter’s Dave Ewers has made 118 tackles, five more than teammate Jonny Gray who has made the second-most overall (113, 81 for Glasgow, 32 for Exeter).
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Latest Comments
Lam and Tupaea should be in All Blacks next year ahead of ALB and Havili.
Of course Leicester Fianga’anuka returns too and has been a dominant ball carrier playing mostly 13
Go to commentsI love when different countries bring different styles and tactics. That's what makes international rugby I terrsting and exciting. For a while when they were going well, New Zealand was berating everyone to have a kiwi coach, so everyone would play like them making it easier for them.
The French, being independently minded never embraced it which is why the All Blacks always struggled with France and a few more countries have dumped their kiwi coaches and lo and behold started doing better.
Poor old Wales and Australia are still stuck in the past being All Blacks cannon fodder. How boring is it to have two countries with kiwi coaches come up against each other, like this weekend. It's dull as hell.
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