France gifts Scotland historic win and Wales the Six Nations title

Redemption for Wayne Pivac's resurgent Wales, dejection for Fabien Galthie's flamboyant yet flaky France.

While both coaches have rebuilt their sides very well, it was Pivac clinching the Six Nations trophy as France lost at home to Scotland 27-23 on Friday night to fall well short of what it needed in order to usurp the Welsh.

"We're over the moon," said Pivac, who led Wales to the title in his second season, just months after his first season produced a heavily criticized fifth-place finish.

France had the match, not the title itself, in hand at 23-20 up in the 81st minute, but fullback Brice Dulin bizarrely decided not to kick the ball into touch with victory assured if he did.

The Scots exerted huge pressure over 22 phases and nearly three minutes, and left winger Duhan van der Merwe swept into the left corner in the 85th minute for his second try of the night and secured Scotland's first Paris triumph since 1999.

Eleven years after last winning the tournament, France needed a four-try bonus point win and a 21point margin of victory in the tournament finale in an empty Stade de France. The odds weren't good.

The French did get three tries, but an average effort never looked like overwhelming the gritty Scots, and they ended up second in the championship, just like last year.

"Even if we couldn't get the points gap and the number of tries we needed, we had several chances to win the game," Galthie said. "We can regret this. That's the truth."

France stopped Wales from winning the Grand Slam last weekend with its own last-gasp winning try — ironically to Dulin — on the same field, but it couldn't stop Scotland. The Scots bookended the tournament beating England at Twickenham and France in Paris in the same championship for the first time since 1926, and could finish only fourth.

"Even though we finished fourth, it feels like one of our best ever seasons," coach Gregor Townsend said.

What made it even more remarkable was Scotland wasn't at full strength. This match was postponed from Feb. 28 because of a coronavirus outbreak in the French camp and, because it dropped outside the international window, Scotland could summon only five of the eight Englishbased players it wanted.

"So proud of the team," Townsend said. "They came here with a bit of adversity with not a full squad, with an injury to one of our starters, a yellow card, a red card ... they showed courage, effort, togetherness and skill to win."