Oxford University 15, Racing Club Paris 22

By MICHAEL KNOX THAT was better! Oxford University may have slipped to their third successive defeat, but they produced a display of both skill and commitment to take this leading French club to the wire at Iffley Road last night.

With five minutes left, the sides were level at 15-15, before the French engineered their third try to grab a deserved victory.

But the Dark Blues, showing the passion and drive so sadly missing in the Stanley's game last week, came mighty close against a team containing seven internationals.

The difference between the sides was the power of a massive French pack.

For the second successive game, Oxford failed to score a try, relying on five penalties from fly-half Seb Fitz-Gerald for their points - even though he did miss four relatively easy kicks

With centres Kurt Shuman and John Kinniburgh enjoying storming games, Oxford pressed for the first 15 minutes, but had only one Fitz-Gerald penalty to show for it. Fly half Jamie Bloem replied in kind for Racing Club, before Fitz-Gerald made it 6-3.

Right on half-time, the tourists took the lead with an unconverted pushover try from No 8 Laurent Bonventre.

A few minutes earlier, Boventre and Oxford prop Ray Lehner had been shown yellow cards for their part in igniting a 15-man brawl that lasted more than half-a minute.

After the break, Fitz-Gerald edged the Blues ahead with his third penalty before by speedy Paris full back Nicolas Le Roux both set up and converted a try by right wing Alex Norca.

Two more Fitz-Gerald penalties levelled the scores before flanker Alain Petrache scored the clinching try following another break by Le Roux, who again added the conversion.

Oxford Univ: P Graham, J Platt, K Shuman, J Kinniburgh, N Marsh, S Fitz-Gerald, J Weston (T Beer 38-40 & 48-52), H Jeffreys, M Parker, R Lehner (A Collins 45), A Russell (E Hallett 52), S Miall, L Sherriff, D Kelaher, N Celliers (capt).

Racing Club Paris: N Le Roux, A Norca, A Chevallier, F Champ, J Cales, J Bloem. F Corompt, L Liebenberg, V da Silva, O Lacaille, C Du Plessis, E Lunardi, A Petrache, M Dougarem, L Bonventre.

Referee: G Ashton-Jones (RFU).

Story date: Thursday 18 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.