Haouas’ red mist delivers fatal blow to Les Bleus’ Grand Slam
There will be no Grand Slam. France’s best chance in a decade to pull that off was ruined by a stellar Scottish performance, featuring a brace of tries from Sean Maitland and a back-breaking red card for France tighthead prop Mohamed Haouas at the end of the first half for a punch, from which France never recovered.
The outcome capped a good weekend for England, who have now gone top of the Six Nations table on points difference ahead of France with one round to go.
As Haouas departed here, rightly sent off for a punch to the head of Scotland’s Jamie Ritchie after the two came together in a ruck, you sensed that France were once again destroying another golden opportunity.
Haouas’s mindless act brought back memories of Sebastien Vahaamahina’s own implosion in Oita at the World Cup, sent off for an elbow on Aaron Wainwright that killed off France’s hopes of progressing to the semi-finals.
Haouas’s exit, a third penalty by Scotland fly-half Adam Hastings and then a well-worked try to put Maitland over in the corner, all came in less than five minutes. Collectively it felt like a knockout punch, not only in the context of the match but for France’s Grand Slam hopes as well, even with the second half still to come. Maitland’s second try shortly after the interval – made by a fine break from Chris Harris, slipping past Paul Willemse then combining with Ali Price – hammered that point home.
France were out of sorts, no question, but it would be a disservice to forget how excellent Scotland were in so many areas. The scrum churned out penalties. Stuart Hogg, given time and space to attack, was lethal. Hamish Watson, supreme, set the tone for the day with his physicality.
Scotland have been outmatched too often in that area in the past. Not yesterday.
“You get confidence when you see the rewards you get for doing something, and the way we’re training, it really gives me a lot of encouragement,” said Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach, who finished his press conference by paying tribute to late Wales centre Matthew J Watkins. “We had a big session on Wednesday, lots of physicality, lots of tackling and contact work, and we saw the players take that into the game.
“We’ve been consistent throughout the championship, we’ve defended well and we’ve been tough to play against. Obviously [the red card] is important, but I thought we played better in the first half than the second.
“We had France on the back foot, and we turned them over nine times in the first half in the way we defended.” Ritchie, who was deservedly named player of the match, was everywhere, unhindered by that punch from Haouas which was brilliantly captured by photographers.
“It was the metal cheek,” said Ritchie. “I’ve seen the photo a couple of times. I was a bit shocked. I must have one of those faces.
“I couldn’t sense they were getting rattled. I saw Nick Haining on his own and three French guys around him, so I ran in and I got punched in the face. It’s one of those things that happen in a game and the guy’s got sent off.
“I can’t say too much about it. I don’t know what was going through his head but I caught the brunt of it.”
France were chasing from the start, with flanker Francois Cros shown the yellow card for his part in a tip tackle on Grant Gilchrist.
Romain Ntamack, France’s impressive fly-half, was also lost to a concussion having already missed an early penalty.
Two penalties from Hastings put Scotland into a 6-0 lead but France’s best period of the match led to their first try, all starting with Julien Marchand winning a turnover penalty. From the resulting line-out France stretched Scotland left and then right, before Antoine Dupont’s brilliant chip out to the wing found a waiting Damian Penaud.
But then France imploded, and Scotland produced a sharp performance that will go down as one of their best under Townsend. A Hastings break set the platform for Maitland to grab his first try, with Sam Johnson straightening before delivering the final pass.
By the time Maitland had crossed for his second try after half-time, Murrayfield was rocking.
Matthieu Jalibert stemmed the tide briefly with a penalty before a line-out steal by Dylan Cretin backfired, the ball eluding Dupont and bouncing up perfectly for Stuart Mcinally to race away for Scotland’s third under a Murrayfield rainbow.
Charles Ollivon scored his fourth try of the tournament, the France captain powering through Watson to finish. But it could not make up for the disappointment of not only losing the Grand Slam, but also their star scrum-half, Dupont, to a serious injury after he left the field gingerly holding his arm with five minutes left to play.
Raphael Ibanez, the France team manager, later revealed that Dupont had suffered a shoulder dislocation.
“We had less intensity, I am not sure why,” Fabien Galthie, the France head coach, admitted. “We will look for those answers.”
The loss of Dupont capped off a miserable afternoon for Galthie’s young France side. But what a magnificent one it was for Scotland, taking that gift from Haouas and turning it into a clinical, encouraging victory.