The first attempt was a good one for the Exeter Chiefs team who won their first European Cup on Saturday 17 October against the French club Racing 92.

They had never reached the final of this competition and they thus confirmed the brilliant progress of this sacred team of England champions at the end of the 2018/2019 season.

The English players, who played this meeting not far from home, in Bristol, very quickly took control of this meeting.

They used their primary weapon, the power and efficiency of their forwards, to score two strength tries in the 8th and 16th minutes, transformed by their opening half Joe Simmonds, to lead 14-0.

Racing 92 relied on the talent of its three quarters to return to the match, with wingers Simon Zebo and Juan Imohff signing two tries in 10 minutes.

The Ile-de-France club, which was playing its third European final against Exeter, did not intend to give up a chance.

But while he was hoping to finally settle in this match, he gave in once again to the power of the opposing forwards, with a try from the mainstay Harry Williams just before half-time.

Three finals lost for Racing 92

With nine points behind the restart (12-21), Racing had to succeed in scoring quickly to come back to score.

From the 42nd minute, Simon Zebo managed to register his second try of the match and bring the Ile-de-France back to 17-21.

Unfortunately for him and his teammates, the English responded immediately by intercepting a pass from Racing 92 opener Finn Russell and scoring a third try.

Forced to chase after the score since the start of the match, Racing 92 never gave up, like hooker Camille Chat who scored a strength test in the 50th minute.

A penalty entered by Maxime Machenaud a few minutes later finally allows Racing players to pick up the score, with only one point behind (27-28) and still a quarter of an hour of play to play.

However, their efforts were not rewarded at the end of the meeting, the English defense holding on, with a final score of 31 to 27. The third attempt was therefore not the right one for Racing 92 who lost their third European final. after the previous setbacks of 2016 and 2018. 

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