Sacre Blues
Laidlaw is star of the show as he fires Scots to rousing comeback victory over Les Bleus
SCOTLAND 32 FRANCE 26
Returning hero Greig Laidlaw masterminds thrilling victory to banish Wales woes
AYR 1 RANGERS 6
Gers dominate second half to secure home cup quarter final with Falkirk
JOHN BARCLAY
THE road to redemption isn’t always an easy one but Scotland made one hell of a start yesterday.
The transformed Dark Blues performed miles better in Edinburgh after last week’s capitulation in Cardiff.
This win over France had Murrayfield hailing returning hero Greig Laidlaw and believing this Six Nations could have a happy ending after all.
Scotland boss Gregor Townsend called for accuracy ahead of this win-or-bust encounter but nobody could have expected his scrum-half ’s laser-like demonstration of points kicking that made him the star of the show.
It was left to skipper John Barclay to sum up an exhilarating afternoon in the capital which was a mixture of defiance, relief and belief the campaign is now back on track.
He said: “There’s a fair bit of relief, actually. You would think we’d be bouncing.
“But after the hangover from last week, everyone is so relieved to get a victory against a really good French side.
“We are so pleased to be in the changing room with a victory and have a week off now.
“We haven’t become a dreadful team just because of the Wales game. That’s why we’re relieved and delighted for the fans who put all that faith in us. That’s for them.
“When we lost the early try, the message was to keep hold of the ball. Every time we got our hands on it we were causing them problems. Greig then brought control and kicked some tough kicks.”
Scotland got off to a poor start. They fell behind in the third minute as Teddy Thomas eluded Finn Russell and Peter Horne before bursting clear of Stuart Hogg’s tackle to send the French into an early lead before Maxime Machenaud added the conversion.
It got worse as Barclay failed to release on the ground and Machenaud fired a penalty between the sticks for a 10-point deficit with only 10 minutes on the clock.
Not quite crisis point but cause for some serious concern
Everyone is so relieved to get a victory against a really good French side
and a quick response was required to calm nerves
It arrived three minutes later as the Dark Blues surged into French territory to assert their first spell of sustained pressure.
Jonny Gray fed Grant Gilchrist who released Russell and the stand-off threw wide for Sean Maitland to score in the corner.
Laidlaw then converted from an acute angle and Townsend’s side were back in the fight.
Murrayfield was energised by an opening spell of breathless rugby as both teams went for the throat and it was the French who coughed up possession as the Scots seized the initiative.
All of that forward impetus was to count for nothing as a combination of bad luck and French power had the visitors scoring a second try.
A sweeping move from left to right had Thomas chipping over Hogg and as Laidlaw attempted to provide cover, the ball bounced over his head and allowed the Racing 92 wing to grab his second score of the day.
Machenaud made no mistake with the extras and Les Bleus had restored their 10-point advantage. It was compounded with a missed Russell kick to touch.
Once again Scotland came straight back into it as Hogg opened up the French defence that allowed Huw Jones to spot a gap under the posts for a try and Laidlaw converted to take the gap to three points just after the half-hour mark.
Another Machenaud penalty a minute before the break extended the French lead to six points and brought an actionpacked 40 minutes to a close. Laidlaw provided the perfect momentum booster from the restart as he sent a penalty between the posts only for Baptiste Serin to fire over a penalty moments later.
Both sides continued to trade points as Laidlaw’s 49th-minute penalty squeezed France’s lead back to three points.
The French started to make serious inroads into Scottish territory and a series of 20 phases saw Serin fire over another three-pointer. But Laidlaw slotted a penalty on the hour mark to keep the home side in the hunt. The everreliable boot of the scrum-half battered over another minutes later to tie the score as Murrayfield sensed the tide had now turned. Scotland bombarded the French backline which brought another penalty and Laidlaw fired them into the lead for the first time with 10 minutes left. The Clermont star sunk another minutes later to stretch that margin to six points. France were still within a converted try of victory but Scotland stood strong to see out a win that sets things up for a Calcutta Cup cracker against England in two weeks’ time.