Les Bleus’ red mist sparks thrilling Scotland victory
● Hosts cut loose after Haouas’ punch on Ritchie ● Maitland’s try double ends France’s Slam hopes ● Mcinally also dives over against 14-man visitors
Scotland soared to a magnificent win and ended 14-man France’s Grand Slam dream at a sun-kissed BT Murrayfield yesterday afternoon.
After an extraordinary red card for tighthead prop Mohamed Haouas for a punch on flanker Jamie Ritchie, the inspired Scots cut loose for a second successive victory in the Six Nations following the win in Italy, and a fourth straight home triumph over the French.
What started as a cagey affair was blown wide open by the sending off and the Scots took full advantage on a heart-warming day for Gregor Townsend’s men, who move up to third in the championship table.
With a large French support in full voice on a beautiful late winter’s afternoon, a slow burn of a first half slowly built towards a dramatic conclusion.
Les Bleus were put on the back foot early on when blindside Francois Cros was sin-binned for a tip tackle on Grant Gilchrist.
Adam Hastings got the scoreboard ticking over for the home side with a couple of penalties but France hit back just after half an hour when their electric scrum-half Antoine Dupont put a delightful cross kick into the paws of right wing Damian Penaud, who scorched over in the right-hand corner. Replacement Matthieu Jalibert, who was on due to Romain Ntamack suffering a head injury, knocked over the conversion.
The fine try was the shining moment of a bitty, stop-start game up until that point but things exploded into life minutes later when Scotland made a surge in the French 22 and Haouas had his moment of madness as he decided to clout man-ofthe-match Ritchie in the face rather than tackle the flanker. After an age of delay the Kiwi referee Paul Williams flashed the most blatant red card you could see in a game of rugby. Hastings slotted over the ensuing penalty.
That opened the door for Scotland to find space and they stretched that lead as Stuart Hogg and Sam Johnson combined to put Maitland in for his first in the right corner.
Hastings, who was completely transformed from his troubles in Rome and in brilliant fettle, couldn’t quite make the difficult conversion.
Scotland had a dream start to the second half as Hogg showed brilliant instinct after a super turnover from the excellent Hamish Watson to set up Maitland for another diving score in the corner, with Hastings adding the extras to leave the French Grand Slam dream floundering.
France continued to threaten despite their numerical disadvantage with some end-to-end exchanges, and Jalibert clawed back a penalty.
But Scotland remained patient and sub hooker Stuart Mcinally pounced on a French lineout error and showed his former back-rower’s pace to break away for his eighth try in a Scotland jersey. Hastings continued his charmed afternoon with a majestic conversion and the French now knew they were beaten.
That didn’t stop the visitors throwing everything at the last quarter, though, and skipper Charles Ollivon claimed a deserved consolation try.
But the Scots were buoyant and almost scored again late on when Blair Kinghorn broke away but kicked the ball dead. Glasgow centre Kyle Steyn came on for his first cap for Scotland, while Duncan Weir earned his first for three years off the bench.
The Scottish crowd rose in jubilation when the match was ended and headed off to toast the country’s finest hour since the 2018 Calcutta Cup.
SCORERS:
SCOTLAND: Tries: Maitland 2, Mcinally. Cons: Hastings 2. Pens: Hastings 3.
FRANCE: Tries: Penaud, Ollivon. Cons: Jalibert 2. Pens: Jalibert.
SCOTLAND: Hogg, Maitland, Harris, Johnson, Kinghorn, Hastings, Price, Sutherland, Brown, Z Fagerson, Cummings, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Watson, Haining.
Replacements: Steyn for Maitland (67), Weir for Johnson (80), Horne for Price (59), Dell for Sutherland (59), Mcinally for Brown (59), Nel for Z Fagerson (67), Skinner for Cummings (71), Bradbury for Haining (59).
FRANCE: Bouthier, Penaud, Vakatawa, Vincent, Fickou, Ntamack, Dupont, Poirot, Marchand, Haouas, Le Roux, Willemse, Cros, Ollivon, Alldritt. Replacements: Ramos for Bouthier (71), Cretin for Penaud (59), Serin for Dupont (77), Gros for Poirot (51), Taofifenua for Willemse (48), Bamba for Cros (48).