JAMES HARRINGTON

FRENCH COLUMN

For Racing 92, this is the first weekend after the unexpected retirement before. A matter of days after the club’s French international centre Virimi Vakatawa confirmed the health-enforced end of his career, his former team-mates travelled to the southwest of the country to face Bayonne in their second match of the new Top 14 season.
The game may turn out to be some form of catharsis at the end of a surprising week in which pure emotion of the game and the harsh realities of professional rugby collided.
First the emotion. It started on Monday, when the club...