Europe Down Under
Dan Carter keeps Top 14 leaders on top with perfect night with the boot
Andy Withers
January 11, 2016
A perfect night with the boot from Carter helps Racing 92 secure a bonus-point victory
A perfect night with the boot from Carter helps Racing 92 secure a bonus-point victory© Stu Forster/Getty Images

New Zealanders featured strongly in European action over the weekend, with Dan Carter and Ben Tameifuna, especially, pivotal for Racing 92 who claimed a four-try bonus-point victory against Glasgow Warriors in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Carter put the French Top 14 leaders on the board when he landed the first of his five goals in a perfect place-kicking performance, and he was then involved twice in the move that produced the opening try of the match - combining first with Wenceslas Lauret and then Alexandre Dumoulin before former Chiefs prop Tameifuna crashed over from close range.

In England, one-cap All Blacks winger Frank Halai and Auckland-born former Samoa winger Sailosi Tagicakibau touched down in the final two minutes for Wasps to secure a dramatic victory against Worcester Warriors in their Aviva Premiership fixture at the Ricoh Arena.

The Warriors were poised to claim a shock victory in Coventry after leading by 10 points at half-time and nine with 15 minutes to play, but Wasps, with Wallabies legend George Smith in the back-row, scored three tries in the final 12 minutes, two converted by former Blues and Hurricanes fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, to "get out of jail" and move back into the top half of the ladder.

© David Rogers/Getty Images

Elsewhere in the Aviva Premiership, former Queensland Reds and Wallabies captain James Horwill iced Harlequins' 29-23 victory over the previously undefeated Saracens at The Stoop when he scored an unconverted try in the final minute after former North Harbour playmaker Ben Botica, on as a replacement for fellow New Zealander Nick Evans, had kicked three goals to nose the Quins ahead.

Horwill also collected a yellow card in the opening minute, for a swinging arm that left England lock George Kruis concussed, and he was perhaps fortunate not to have seen red with Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall questioning "when a yellow becomes a red ... I don't know where the boundaries are".

England-qualified back-rower Lachlan McCaffrey, born in Sydney, scored a try for Leicester Tigers in their 30-27 Midlands derby victory over Northampton Saints, for whom New Zealand-born England-qualified flanker Teimana Harrison, touched down, while Kiwi-born Thomas Waldrom, who has won five caps for England scored twice rumbled over twice in the opening 10 minutes as Exeter Chiefs defeated Gloucester 19-10. Waldrom moved back to the top of the Premiership try-scoring ladder with his brace.

Australian Ben Teo, another Antipodean with aspirations of playing for England, once he moves to Worcester for next season, produced a powerful performance for Leinster as they defeated Ospreys 22-9 in Swansea.

The former National Rugby League player with Wests Tigers, Brisbane Broncos and South Sydney, where he was a team-mate with Sam Burgess, first dismissed Wales fly-half Dan Biggar with a huge fend and he made an incisive break, with Leinster leading by a single point with 15 minutes to play, before offloading to centre partner Noel Reid for the decisive score of the match.

Also in the Guinness Pro 12, Australian-born James Ambrosini scored a try for Treviso against Edinburgh. And in the Top 14, Kiwi wingers David Smith and Sitiveni Sivivatu each scored for Castres in their victory over Pau.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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