Ronan O'Gara said ending Toulon's three-year reign in Europe is a key moment in what his Racing 92 club are trying to achieve.
It is O’Gara’s third season in Paris and with a contract extension just signed keeping him there until 2019, the Racing assistant coach said this was a huge statement.
"We did everything to nearly let Toulon through and it would have been a shattering blow. We lost in the last minute to Saracens and if we lost today at home to Toulon . . . I think it was weighed up today for us to do well. If we were to beat Toulon, it should be today and we just about did it," he said.
“We can kick on and go one or two ways: we can either play very well against Leicester and kick on or else we fall in love with ourselves and think we have beaten Toulon and the job is done.”
Brilliant start
They made a brilliant start and were 10-0 in front after just four minutes with
Juan Imhoff
crossing for a try and
Dan Carter
, who got a penalty inside two minutes, adding the conversion.
Carter suffered a knock to his knee which prevented him from kicking, and it looked like it would be costly when scrumhalf Max Machenaud missed from in front of the posts with the sides deadlocked after 74 minutes. But he made the most of another chance to seal the win, ending Toulon's reign and setting up a semi-final away to Leicester at the City Ground in Nottingham.
“There is no culture of winning in the club, there are no values and there is no culture of previous good things so that is very important to try and do that but you can only do that by your actions speaking louder than words,” O’Gara said.
