Joseph’s late brace kills off Scotland comeback

FRANCE bossed the second half of this 11-try thriller in Pau after Scotland had forged a fight-back following a poor start that saw them trailing 14-0 within the opening 15 minutes.

Head coach Sébastien Piqueronies had made nine changes to the French starting XV after defeat to England and, while he was pleased with some of their attacking play, he still wants a lot more in defence.

“We scored some nice tries and I was pleased with some of the link play, but when we were 21-0 up we should have gone on and killed off the game, but instead Scotland came back into things,” he said.

“The boys need to learn not to switch off and think that things are finished.”

Scotland picked up a losing bonus point with five tries, but are still winless.

Head coach Carl Hogg said: “You’ve got to credit the lads the way they stuck in and fought their way back because it looked ominous at one point.

“We showed a huge amount of courage and a huge amount of endeavour and when we have the ball, we look a threat, especially on the outside, but we’ve got to make sure we win the ball consistently.

“We must execute the basic things consistently under pressure throughout the 80 minutes. We’re on a steep learning curve, but we are learning and we are moving forward.”

France raced into the lead with a quickfire trydouble. Winger Vincent Pinto finished a fine set piece move in the right corner before loosehead prop Eli Eglaine muscled over after a scrum to give France a 14-0 lead.

When replacement back Jules Favre scored a third for France, all converted by stand-off Mathieu Smaili, it was looking ominous for the visitors.

Scotland needed a response and winger Jack Blain provided it, getting on the end of a grubber kick to reduce arrears.

A solo try from Scotland stand-off Ross Thomson soon after – breaking tackles and side-stepping over from 45 metres – reduced the arrears to 21-10. And when replacement back Robbie McCallum went

over for a try converted by Thomson it was 21-17 at the interval.

Blain’s second try after he collected his own chip early in the second half made it 22-21 to the visiting team.

However, France came roaring back for No.8 Jordan Joseph and centre Yoram Moefana to score tries four and five.

Smaili slotted both conversions and, while replacement front row Angus Fraser bagged another Scottish try from a maul, the final score went to Joseph as France came out on top.