Racing Metro and Castres will square off in the second of this weekend’s Top 14 semi-finals on Saturday the 26th of May.
Racing Metro will be looking to secure their spot in the Top 14 Grand Final when they take on a dogged Castres side out in Lyon. The hosts enjoyed a week off while Castres head into this one off the back of a highly impressive 11-23 victory over Toulouse.
Racing Metro 92 v Castres
Saturday 26 May
Groupama Stadium
16:15
To Win (80 Mins)
Racing 1/3
Draw 20/1
Castres 23/10
Racing
The men from Paris head into this one as red-hot favourites with the ‘books for due reason. Racing managed to finish the regular season in second place with a strong second half of the campaign seeing them attain such a lofty position. They also managed to do the double over Castres, winning their home fixture 25-21 and the away fixture 13-18.
Racing also enjoyed a strong finish to their regular season winning five of their last six games. And while they’ll be somewhat dejected from their defeat to Leinster in the European Champions Cup Final, that’s likely to serve as more motivation for them to lift the Top 14 title.
Castres
Castres really are the gift that keeps on giving. They came into last weekend’s game against Toulouse as rank outsiders and were trading at 5/2 at a point. If you had stuck your money on them last weekend you would have been able to sit back and enjoy as they claimed a comfortable 11-23 victory over Toulouse, despite playing the final quarter with 14 men.
Like Racing, Castres found a solid run of form near the tail end of the regular season, winning three of their final four fixtures. They are at a slight psychological disadvantage here however as they have already lost to Racing twice this season.
Verdict: Racing Metro 1/3
Metro really are a side tailor-made for play-offs rugby. I can see them grinding their opponents into submission to claim a narrow win.
Written by Darry Worthington for @Hollywoodbets.net
