ACC, r6: Wisniewski's last-minute penalty gives Racing-Métro narrow win over Wasps

22 January 2010

Jonathan Wisniewski kicked an injury-time penalty to hand Racing-Métro 92 a 19-17 home win against previously unbeaten London Wasps in Thursday's Pool 4 encounter.

Racing were playing for pride after losing three of their previous five matches in the Amlin Challenge Cup, but there last-gasp win could have serious implications for Wasps, who were looking for a sixth straight win to seal a home quarter-final berth.

Wisniewski had opened the night's scoring with a third-minute penalty, but the Guinness Premiership side recovered to lead 9-10 at the interval thanks to a Tom Varndell try and five points from the boot of fly-half Danny Cipriani.

Amlin Challenge Cup - Pool results and tables

A second Wisniewski penalty, coupled with a 28th-minute drop-goal, kept the Parisians in touch and they subsequently reclaimed the lead after 57 minutes when Dan Ward-Smith was yellow carded and Racing won a penalty try, putting them 16-10 up.

But Wasps rallied again, despite being a man down, and Varndell's second try of the night on 65 minutes - again converted by Cipriani - edged them 16-17 with just 15 minutes to play. It remained like that until the dying seconds when a high tackle on the Racing fly-half enabled Wisniewski to steal it for Pierre Berbizier's at the death.

Wisniewski's last-gasp kick sealed the 19-17 win, and left Cipriani and Wasps ruing two missed kicks of their own when leading 10-3 early in the first half. The English side must now watch how the other weekend results unfold to see whether they do indeed secure that crucial home advantage in the last eight.

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