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Northampton were denied a bonus point yesterday after a late aberration by England’s Ben Foden, who had a kick charged down, allowed Racing wing Marc Andreu to scamper over for a try that Johan Goosens crucially converted.
Northampton were still in touch at that stage, trailing only 13-11 after a try by replacement back-row forward Phil Dowson had brought them back into the contest.
However it was referee George Clancy who played a pivotal role, with both sides left bemused by his decisions in the scrum, as well as his failure to take more serious action over a potential gouge from Salesi Ma’afu.
Racing paid the more serious price, losing two props to sin-binnings, but Northampton looked nothing like the team that has dominated the Premiership so far this season and despite the cruel nature of the ending, probably didn’t deserve anything out of the game.
It was an unfamiliar setting for Saints, who have been paired with Castres in the pool stages in each of the last four seasons. And all too often defeats in France have proven costly in their chase for a quarter-final place, something they have not done since reaching the final in 2011.
European Champions Cup in picturesShow all 55 1 /55European Champions Cup in pictures European Champions Cup in pictures Northampton Saints 8 Racing Metro 32 Benjamin Lapeyre celebrates with his Racing Metro team-mates
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European Champions Cup in pictures Northampton Saints 8 Racing Metro 32 Juan Imhoff scores for Racing Metro
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European Champions Cup in pictures Northampton Saints 8 Racing Metro 32 Dylan Hartley sits on the bench after being sin-binned in Northampton's defeat to Racing Metro
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European Champions Cup in pictures Northampton Saints 8 Racing Metro 32 Tom Wood looks on in dejection after suffering and ankle injury
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 20 Leinster 20 Nathan Hughes scores for Wasps in the 20-20 draw with Leinster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 20 Leinster 20 Andy Goode reacts to his missed drop goal in the final play of the 20-20 draw between Wasps and Leinster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 20 Leinster 20 Tom Varndell closes in on the try line
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 20 Leinster 20 Rob Kearney attempts to ride the tackle from Christian Wade
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European Champions Cup in pictures Castres 17 Harlequins 47 Nick Easter in action for Harlequins in the win over Castres
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European Champions Cup in pictures Castres 17 Harlequins 47 Marland Yarde scores on of Harlequins' seven tries
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European Champions Cup in pictures Castres 17 Harlequins 47 Nick Evans seeks a team-mate as he breaks the Castres line
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European Champions Cup in pictures Castres 17 Harlequins 47 Harlequins' pack carries the ball forwards towards the line
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European Champions Cup in pictures Ospreys 9 Northampton Saints 20 George North breaks through the Ospreys defence to score for Northampton on Sunday
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulouse 18 Bath 35 Francois Louw scored Bath’s final try against Toulouse to earn a bonus-point win on Sunday
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 60 Ulster 22 Nicolas Sanchez dives over the line for a try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 60 Ulster 22 Mathieu Bastareuad barrells his way over for a try against Ulster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 60 Ulster 22 Bryan Habana touches the ball down for one of Toulon's eight tries
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 33 Munster 10 Chris Ashton celebrates a try against Munster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 33 Munster 10 Billy Vunipola evades the clutches of Dave Foley
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 33 Munster 10 Jacques Burger and Peter O'Mahony clash during Saracens' win over Munster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Leicester 40 Scarlets 23 Harry Robinson scored two tries in response for the Scarlets
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European Champions Cup in pictures Leicester 40 Scarlets 23 Tom Youngs slides in for his second try of the match
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European Champions Cup in pictures Leicester 40 Scarlets 23 Julian Salvi attempts to sneak around the fringe of the scrum to tackle Rob McCusker
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European Champions Cup in pictures Clermont Auvergne 26 Munster 19 Peter O'Mahony tackles Aurelien Rougerie
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 44 Castres 17 Wasps’ Tom Varndell scores his second try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Wasps 44 Castres 17 Fans say their farewells to Adams' Park
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 28 Sale Sharks 15 Alex Goode scores in the corner for Saracens
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 28 Sale Sharks 15 George Kruis tries to barge his way over scrum-half Will Cliff
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 23 Leicester Tigers 8 Mathieu Bastareaud dives in for Toulon's second try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 23 Leicester Tigers 8 Leigh Halfpenny tries to sidestep Ben Youngs
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 23 Leicester Tigers 8 Mathieu Bastareaud tries to barge his way over Vereniki Goneva
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European Champions Cup in pictures Toulon 23 Leicester Tigers 8 Blaine Scully dives over in the corner to score for the Tigers
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European Champions Cup in pictures Bath 32 Montpellier 12 Bath’s Matt Banahan (centre) and Sam Burgess (left) team up to send the former over for his first of three tries
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European Champions Cup in pictures Leicester 25 Toulon 21 Owen Williams kicked 20 points to end Toulon's nine-game unbeaten run in Europe
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European Champions Cup in pictures Harlequins 24 Leinster 18 Harlequins Nick Easter and Luke Wallace hold up Jimmy Gopperth of Leinster
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European Champions Cup in pictures Castres 17 Wasps 32 Andy Goode kicked 12 points in the win
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European Champions Cup in pictures Ospreys 19 Racing Metro 19 Fijian Josh Matavesi scores the Ospreys’ crucial late try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Benetton Treviso 15 Northampton Saints 38 Luther Burrell scores Saints' fourth try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Benetton Treviso 15 Northampton Saints 38 Ben Foden touches down to scores Northampton's third try against Treviso
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European Champions Cup in pictures Benetton Treviso 15 Northampton Saints 38 Samu Manoa celebrates after getting the ball rolling by scoring Saints' first
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European Champions Cup in pictures Sale Sharks 15 Saracens 19 Saracens celebrate after Owen Farrell scores in the 19-15 win over Sale
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European Champions Cup in pictures Sale Sharks 15 Saracens 19 Andrei Ostrikov scores for Sale against Saracens
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European Champions Cup in pictures Montpellier 5 Bath 30 George Ford kicked 15 points as Bath strolled to victory
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European Champions Cup in pictures Northampton Saints 34 Ospreys 6 George North of Northampton Saints scores the first try during the European Rugby Champions Cup Pool 5 match between Northampton Saints and Ospreys
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European Champions Cup in pictures Ulster 13 Toulon 23 Toulon's English wing Delon Armitage scores his team's second try during the European Rugby Champions Cup match between Ulster and Toulon
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European Champions Cup in pictures Bath 19 Toulouse 21 Dave Attwood of Bath pushes in a scrum as Imanol Harinordoquy (L) and Timoci Matanavou of Toulouse
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European Champions Cup in pictures Leicester Tigers 25 Ulster 18 Owen Williams of Leicester Tigers in action during the Aviva Premiership match between Leicester Tigers and Harlequins at Welford Road
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European Champions Cup in pictures Racing Metro 20 Northampton Saints 13 Northampton’s No 9 Kahn Fotuali’i passes from a scrum
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European Champions Cup in pictures Glasgow Warriors 37 Bath 10 Busting the line: Glasgow No 8 Adam Ashe makes a break
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 30 Clermont Auvergne 23 Chris Ashton capitalises on an error to score the match winning try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 30 Clermont Auvergne 23 David Strettle touches down for a try in the corner
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European Champions Cup in pictures Saracens 30 Clermont Auvergne 23 Zac Guildford scores a try to stretch Clermont's lead
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European Champions Cup in pictures Sale Sharks 26 Munster 27 Munster players celebrate the victory over Sale after a late drop-goal from Ian Keatley
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European Champions Cup in pictures Harlequins 25 Castres 9 England team-mates Danny Care and Marland Yarde celebrates after the scrum-half scores a try
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European Champions Cup in pictures Harlequins 25 Castres 9 Nick Evans kicks a conversion during Quins' opening European match at the Twickenham Stoop
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Racing, meanwhile, have never really found their feet in Europe, with just seven wins from 24 games in their four Heineken Cup campaigns before this game.
They do however have a tendency to start powerfully, and they made an absolute flier here with a try after just four minutes in from their dashing in-form centre Dumoulin.
It was a stodgy opening period, and Racing should have been further ahead after controlling much of the game, but they struggled to turn that dominance into points.
Line-ups:
Racing Metro: B Dulin; J Imhoff, A Dumoulin, J Roberts, M Andreu; J Sexton (J Goosen, 73), M Machenaud (M Phillips, 60); J Brugnaut, V Lacombe, L Ducalcon, J Kruger, F Van Der Merwe (G Charteris, 42), W Lauret, B Le Roux, A Claassen.
Northampton: B Foden; K Pisi, G. Pisi (J Wilson, 55), L Burrell, G North; S Myler, K Fotuali’i (L Dickson, 55), A Waller (E Waller, 63), D Hartley (M Haywood, 63), S Ma’afu, C Lawes (J Craig, 69), C Day, T Wood, C Clark, S Manoa (P Dowson, 69).
Referee: G Clancy (Ire).
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