The build up to the game gave both sets of players reasons to be pumped, France playing their first major national game in any sport since the Paris attacks while the Scottish camp were riled after French coach Saint-Andre labelled their side as “weak”.
Here is a report by “BabyBlueElephant”
France 15 – Scotland 8
by “BabyBlueElephant”
The build up to the game gave both sets of players reasons to be pumped, France playing their first major national game in any sport since the Paris attacks while the Scottish camp were riled after French coach Saint-Andre labelled their side as “weak”.
The tale of the tape of both gameplans was made obvious in the first ten minutes. After 180 minutes of rugby in the two previous rounds of defences overwhelming attacks, the French seemed content to fling the ball around their back three like a hot potato.
The result of all this was going backwards at a rate of knots. Scotland ended up turning the ball over until they coughed up possession themselves leading to a French scrum. The resulting scrum was solid which as always, is a good predictor of a game of rugby in modern times.
Following on, the next ten minutes of play was thoroughly dominated by the French. Powerful play by the French fowards, who play at a pace few can match, resulted in huge gains and eventually to the Scottish defence caving in and giving away two penalties for the outstanding Camille Lopez to slot over.
With fifteen minutes left before halftime, Scottish rugby fans would see something of turnaround in the attacking intent of their team than has been the case in years gone by. With three clear line breaks of the French first line of defence, this Scottish team looked dangerous.
The first through Hogg, an outstanding fifteen, but resulted in a brainless end to the attack with fly half Russell going for a drop goal. The play was so daft it prompted the ever renown shy and quiet Campo to utter on twitter “Very poor skills from an international team”.
Finally the Scots would break through via a fantastic team try with patience and skill, starting from the halfway line. A soccer-esque ‘one – two’ from Visser and Hogg led to a thirty metre gain on the by-line. Resultant composure unlike the previous play lead to multiple rucks before the ball was send wide to put replacement wing Dougie Fife in at the corner. Nigel Owens blew for halftime with France taking a nine eight lead.
Dougie Fife – scored only try of the match
The second half started with equal intensity with a Scottish rush first line defence keeping France stuck in their own twenty-two. This would be a rare time the ball would be in this part of the field.
France cleared and stole a lineout, a rarity to a very dominant Scottish set piece, and as usual was sent from the outside half to the nineteen stone Bastareaud at centre. A word is to be mentioned here for Scotland outhalf Finn Russell who chopped the man mountain down for the third time in the game at this point.
Poor Scottish errors at set piece and with ball in hand would see France claim a succession of penalties. The first would be in kickable range, converted by Lopez to take a twelve eight lead. The second would result in a kick to touch and a fantastic rolling maul by the French, only scuppered by their own sloppy hands as they knocked the ball on five metres out.
What would happen for the next fifteen minutes of the game would be a succession of Scottish penalties and poor mistakes leading to the French continually kicking to the corner. A note must be made on the power of the resulting French mauls that came from this.
The French maul seemingly ran out of patience at their own farcical errors, and went into top gear travelling at a pace unbeknown to forwards that made it up. They made a twenty metre gain and were hauled down illegally just five metres from the Scottish try line. Scotland number eight Beattie was shown a yellow.
France with the penalty decided to kick for touch yet again, and but for fantastic defence and the work of openside Cowan (who claimed three turnovers this game.) spared Scotland from a seemingly inevitable score.
Blair Cowan – fanstastic defence for Scotland and could run too
The wrap up
The game was then easily shut out by the French with less than ten to go. Les Marseilles began to be belted out by the home crowd, appropriate a song about unity and marching onwards was sang ahead of next weeks fixture against reigning champions Ireland.
[one_half last=”no”]
The Game Changer
Seeing the power of the French maul today was special, but we’ll give this one to Fife’s try just before halftime in a wonderful move for the Scots.
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
The G&GR MOTM
In Finn Russell Scotland may have finally found an out half capable of filling Gregor Townsend’s boots. His attacking play, passing game and commitment in defence was a pleasure to watch today.[/one_half]
The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”] France 15
Penalties: C. Lopez (5)
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
Scotland 8
Try: D. Fife
Penalty: G.Laidlaw
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”no”]
Cards & citings
J. Beattie (61′ – 71′)
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
Crowd
78.191[/one_half]
The teams
France
15. Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Teddy Thomas, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Damien Chouly, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Alexandre Menini.
Reserves: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Uini Atonio, 18 Eddy Ben Arous, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Loann Goujon, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Rémi Talès, 23 Rémi Lamerat.
Scotland
15. Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Reserves: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Jim Hamilton, 20 Alasdair Strokosch, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Dougie Fife.
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)
Assistant Referees: Glen Jackson (NZRU) Mike Fraser (NZRU)
