Racing 92 30-10 Saracens: Parisians romp to bonus-point Champions Cup Pool 4 win

Racing 92 bettered Saracens across the park in their Champions Cup Pool 4 encounter

Racing 92 added to Saracens' miserable fortnight by crushing the under-powered defending European Cup champions 30-10 at a dazzled La Defense Arena in Paris.

The Top 14 outfit secured a bonus-point victory in thrilling fashion as Virimi Vakatawa, Teddy Thomas, Finn Russell and Wenceslas Lauret notched tries, befitting the extravagant venue in which they play.

Saracens, shorn of all of their England Rugby World Cup players and facing the prospect of a 35-point Premiership point deduction, scored their points via an Alex Lozowski try and Ben Spencer penalty, but their XV were thoroughly outplayed and rendered second best at both the breakdown and lineout.

Sarries host Ospreys in Champions Cup Pool 4 next Saturday in Round 2 at 1pm, while Racing make the trip to Thomond Park to face Munster at 5.30pm later the same day.

Saracens struggled massively to contain Racing at La Defense Arena, with their lineout faltering most notably

Racing started by far the quicker, with centre Vakatawa and out-half Russell each producing line-breaks inside the opening seconds, before Saracens captain Jackson Wray was penalised for failing to roll away on his 22 - Maxime Machenaud surprisingly hooking the opening chance for points wide off the tee, however.

The scrum-half put that miss to bed two minutes later though, when he bisected the posts for 3-0 from a central position after Saracens prop Titi Lamositele was caught offside.

An Alex Lozowski penalty for an intentional knock on and subsequent Baptiste Chouzenoux lineout steal handed Racing more territory in the Saracens 22, allowing Machenaud to rip a wonderful flat pass for Vakatawa to take on the run and ground under the posts for the first try on 10 minutes.

Virimi Vakatawa was man of the match as Racing 92 ripped Saracens apart in Paris

A Saracens chance came and went in response as a Ben Earl linebreak and offload set full-back Matt Gallagher away down the right, before Racing's Eddy Ben Arous ended the move via a breakdown turnover. As it was, Machenaud added three more points on 22 mins to make things 13-0.

Sarries did get onto the board after 25 minutes when a scrum penalty was forced against the head when Ben Arous collapsed, allowing scrum-half Ben Spencer to step up and strike a fabulous effort from all of 50 metres.

Racing responded within a minute, however, as a stunning aerial take from full-back Brice Dulin - one of the smallest players on the park - set them in motion, before Thomas struck in the corner - his try surviving a TMO review for a foot in touch.

Teddy Thomas got over in the corner for Racing's second try of the first half

The Parisians passed up the chance for a third try before the break when Vakatawa's offload to Juan Imhoff drifted forward, but the score still read a daunting 18-3 at the half.

Three consecutive penalties against Racing at the start of the second period handed Saracens a trio of close-range attacking lineouts in their first real spell of possession in the 22, but it all eventually came to nothing as the ball was lost forward at the maul.

On 51 minutes Saracens did have a try, and a gift it was as after Russell had knocked on a poor Machenaud pass, the Racing 10 allowed Nick Tompkins to strip the ball and sprint clear, before passing to centre partner Lozowski to finish.

Alex Lozowski scored Sarries' only try on the day

Again, the Racing repost was instantaneous, however, as Russell more than made up for his previous error by first dummying to slice through the Saracens defensive line and offload out of contact to start the attack, before selling a dummy again to saunter over for Racing's third try.

Half-time had resembled a pop concert more so than a sporting occasion, and Racing continued to dazzle the crowd with their incisive, flowing brand of attacking rugby.

An Antonie Claassen pass through the legs almost brought about the bonus-point score down the left, and moments later the home support did have a fourth try to celebrate as back-row Lauret powered over after a dominant maul drive.

Finn Russell danced over for Racing's third try after making an error for Saracens' score

Racing pressed for a fifth score and forced a Saracens sin-binning when replacement scrum-half Tom Whiteley was yellow carded for playing opposite number Teddy Iribaren near his own try-line late on, but the French side couldn't break through again.

The defeat was Saracens' first in this competition since April 2018, and just their fourth in 35 games. The result leaves head coach Mark McCall plenty to ponder, as the club may now completely sacrifice Europe in order to focus efforts on maintaining Premiership status.