Blame as their long wait for a win in France goes on

That sparked a furious reaction from the Saint-denis crowd but they were off their seats cheering just six minutes later as Ntamack marked his first start at fly-half with the opener.

Peter Horne failed to put a kick into touch and that set Thomas Ramos loose.

Snaking his way through three tackles, the full-back released Penaud, who then span the ball back inside for Dupont. The scrum-half was pulled down by Nick Grigg before he could score but there was no-one there to stop Ntamack running over.

Ramos converted before putting over a penalty as France put the squeeze on.

It looked to be going horribly wrong for the Scots. Guilhem Guirado halted a promising attack with a thunderous hit on Horne while the ever-dependable Greig Laidlaw hit a straightforward kick off the post.

His next attempt did fly over and when Yoann Huget was sin-binned for illegally playing the ball on the deck, opportunity beckoned for the visitors.

However, it was France who came closest to scoring again before the interval. Another Horne mistake as he spilled a high ball looked set to be punished but again the TMO came to Scotland’s rescue as Wenceslas Lauret’s knock-on meant Gael Fickou’s score was chalked off.

Given how many mistakes Scotland had made during the opening 40 minutes, a seven-point deficit was kind.

There was to be no repeat of the second-half collapse which saw France throw away a 16-point advantage against Wales in week one as Huget crossed over within a minute of the restart.

Mathieu Bastareaud ghosted past Josh Strauss with an audacious chip over his head.

Horne then missed a tackle on Fickou before the ball was worked out to Huget to dance in for a try which made some amends for his blunder which sparked the Welsh comeback.

Adam Hastings took over at 10 from Horne and his introduction finally allowed Scotland to build pressure but there was no give in Les Bleus’ backline.

Again the TMO conspired against France as another Fickou touchdown was disallowed but there was no stopping Alldritt as the home pack powered through Scotland’s defence with three minutes left.

Horne broke free to tee up Price for a late score.

There was another TMO review in stoppage time as France chased a bonus point. Their first drive from a line-out was ruled out but Alldritt did score the fourth try as he muscled over from close range.