Racing clinch Highlanders thriller
All Blacks great Carter kicked a conversion before withdrawing at half-time in what became an end-to-end contest with the two teams sharing 13 tries. Chris Masoe got the winning try for the French side, after a driving maul in the dying minutes to seal the exhibition game in front of a lively crowd.
The trademark European move was a fitting way to settle a match billed as a clash of styles between the Top 14's Racing and the free-running Highlanders from Otago, New Zealand.
"Our driving maul was exceptional, that's something that's not appreciated maybe in the southern hemisphere but in the northern hemisphere it's a massive weapon for us," Racing's assistant coach Ronan O'Gara said.
The Highlanders opened the scoring through a penalty try before Racing, despite a yellow card to Juandre Kruger, hit back through scrum half Xavier Chaveau to make it 7-7. Racing took the lead when captain Francois van der Merwe went over on the left before the Highlanders, who by then had Joe Wheeler in the sin bin, came storming back through Matt Faddes.
Fullback Faddes completed a sweet move to get his second and make it 21-12 at half-time, before centre Richard Buckman scored from the restart to put the Highlanders 26-12 up.
It started a flurry of tries with Marc Andreu, Chauveau and Luc Ducalcon all going over for Racing before No.8 Liam Squire crossed for the Highlanders to make it 31-31. They swapped tries yet again to make it 38-38 with 10 minutes left before Racing brought out the driving maul to put replacement Masoe over and go home with the silverware.
While Racing made the long trip to Hong Kong mid-season, the Highlanders are preparing for their final Super campaign under Jamie Joseph, who will take over as Japan coach in August.
"It's a shame we couldn't get the win because I guess there's a bit of banter involved [in the game]. We thought they would have driven a bit more than that,. That's obviously their strength and we've been practising to try and stop that but they've got a really good driving maul," Highlanders captain Shane Christie.
Scorers:
For Highlanders:
Tries: Penalty try, Faddes 2, Buckman, Squire, Walden
Cons: Sopoaga 3, Banks
For Racing 92:
Tries: Chauveau 2, van der Merwe, Andreu, Ducalcon, Goosen, Masoe
Cons: Carter, Dambielle 4
Teams:
Highlanders: 15 Matt Faddes, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Jason Emery, 12 Richard Buckman, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Josh Renton, 8 Liam Squire, 7 Shane Christie (captain), 6 Elliot Dixon, 5 Joe Wheeler, 4 Tom Franklin, 3 Josh Hohneck, 2 Ash Dixon, 1 Daniel Lienert-Brown.
Replacements - from: Greg Pleasants-Tate, Brendon Edmonds, Siosiua Halanukonuka, Jackson Hemopo, Sio Tomkinson, Liam Howley, Malakai Fekitoa, Tei Walden, Ryan Tongia, Marty Banks, Luke Whitelock, James Lentjes, Mark Reddish.
Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Louis Dupichot, 13 Etienne Dussartre, 12 Dan Carter, 11 Marc Andreu, 10 Remi Tales, 9 Xavier Chauveau, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Luc Barba, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Francois van der Merwe (captain), 4 Thibault Dubarry, 3 Cedabe Gomes Sa, 2 Virgile Lacombe, 1 Julien Brugnaut.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Davit Khinchagishvili, 18 Juandre Kruger, 19 Chris Masoe, 20 Mike Phillips, 21 Benjamin Dambielle, 22 Joe Rokocoko, 23 Ben Tameifuna, 24 Luc Ducalcon, 25 Manuel Carizza, 26 Maxime Javaux, 27 Juan Imhoff, 28 Johannes Goosen
Referee: Tim Baker (Hong Kong)
Assistant referees: Matt Rodden, Patrick Kwok (Hong Kong)