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Watch: Ulster coach in holiday mode during final minutes of tense Champions Cup battle

Jared Payne. Photo / RugbyPass

Some Jacob Stockdale wizardry helped Irish club Ulster hand French club Racing Metro their first Champions Cup loss in a tense battle that wasn’t decided until the final minutes of the game.

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However, one look at Ulster defence coach Jared Payne would tell you that the result was never in doubt as Ulster coolly completed a 26-22 victory.

The former Ireland utility, now in his first campaign in the coaches box with his former club, looked as relaxed as ever as he watched his side cling to a one-point lead with just five minutes left to play.

Ulster came out with a fast pace, scoring the first two tries to take an early 13-0 lead. Racing worked their way back into the match through tries to Viri Vakatawa and Simon Zebo to reduce the gap to 16-10.

Another try to Stockdale score pushed Ulster’s lead out and missed opportunities by Racing meant the club suffered their first Champions Cup loss of the season, with the victors’ playoff hopes still alive.

Ulster remain in second place in the Pool, three competition points behind Racing despite having the same win-loss record.

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T
TokoRFC 1 hour ago
Super Rugby Pacific's greatest season stained by one playoff game

Mate, what TK and Ben Smith are forgetting is that a comp needs more games that matter, and its a balancing act getting that right.

They haven’t understood that having so many teams fighting over the 6th spot is what fueled the back end of the regular season. Not to mention the games to decide the top end of the finals seeding. It would have been a bit flat if the 4 bottom teams were out of the running with a few rounds still to go.


The current finals format is a bit funny to get used to, I agree. But if they sort out the scheduling guff where the BRU vs HUR match could have been a non knockout game, as well as giving more punishment for the lucky looser (dropping them to 4th seed in the semis). The current format creates more meaningful matches than the alternatives.


Some examples of finals formats:


Top 6 14 matches that matter

With the improvements above, the current system creates 6 competitive finals, plus say 8 matches in the regular season that are effectively knockout games. 14 games that definitely matter. Plus some games to decide the finals seeding in there too.


Top 4 10 matches that matter

3 finals matches and say 6 games to fight over the top 4. At a best case you may get 12 crucial games


If offered the choice, the sponsors, the broadcasters, the fans, the players and the all blacks selectors would all take more meaningful games over any alternative format.

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