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Sexton remained on the bench for Racing. ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Hart kicks 15 points for Grenoble as Sexton unused by Racing

The Ireland out-half did not appear from the bench during Racing Metro’s loss to Biarritz.

IRISH SCRUM-HALF James Hart kicked five penalties for Grenoble as they lost 25-18 to Montpellier in the Top 14 this evening.

The former Clontarf man kept his side in the game with a display of accurate place kicking, but the home side powered to victory thanks to a try from Mamuka Gorgodze, two drop goals from François Trinh-Duc, three penalties by Benoît Paillaugue and another five points by Jonathan Pélissié.

Hart played the entire game on his fifth start of the season and it was his 76th minute penalty that salvaged an important losing bonus point for the Bernard Jackman and Mike Prendergast-coached Grenoble. Former Connacht lock and club captain of the Top 14 club, Andrew Farley, also played a role off the bench.

Meanwhile, former Leinster lock Damian Browne started for Oyonnax as the minnows earned a 22-9 win at home to Perpignan. Last year’s Pro D2 champions have already beaten Toulon, Clermont and Castres at home, with the James Hook-captained Catalans the latest to join the list of high-profile scalps at the Stade Charles Mathon.

Browne was making his sixth league appearance of the season for Oyonnax, having joined from Leinster during the summer. The 33-year-old previously had a spell in France with Brive.

Elsewhere, Jonny Sexton was an unused substitute for Racing Metro in their 9-6 loss away to Biarritz. Strangely, head coaches Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers decided against using the Ireland out-half in the closing stages as the game went down to the wire in heavy downpour.

Instead, Sexton watched on as fullback Benjamin Dambielle missed two late penalties for the Parisians against a Biarritz side for whom this was just the second win of a difficult domestic season. Even after this shock victory, Serge Blanco’s club remains glued to the bottom of the league.

The question of why Racing even bothered to have Sexton fly back to France after training with Ireland all week springs to mind, but Joe Schmidt will have been relieved to see one of his most important players remaining on the bench.

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    Mute Jerry MacCárthaigh
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:48 PM

    Racing are simply showing the IRFU whose boss, they call the shots!

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    Mute MarkMurph1
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 9:16 PM

    And rightly so!

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    Mute Simon Chadwick
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 9:19 PM

    That didn’t work so well for them though, did it?

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    Mute Alice ORiordan
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 3:20 PM

    Agree Jerry if you are paying your player a lot you call the shots…It looked like and sounded like they never intended to use him this weekend but he still had to go back .

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    Mute Eamonn coughlan
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:45 PM

    Pity gorgodze doesn’t play at a higher international setting he’d be 1 of the greats

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    Mute Sean Dalton
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 1:13 AM

    hart looking like a serious player

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    Mute Alice ORiordan
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 3:20 PM

    Hope he gets a call up to Ireland camp soon.

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    Mute David Sheehan
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 9:23 AM

    With this one foreign based player rule is it just going to be sexton all the time and we end up losing players to England and France.

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