Guts and guile aplenty as Scotland end French hoodoo
Victory is first over Les Bleus for decade
A HEROIC performance that combined equal measures of attacking adventure and defiant defence produced a memorable victory for Scotland over France yesterday – and crowned England as Six Nations Champions. It was a first back-to-back win in the tournament in three years – and only the third time they have achieved that feat since 2000 – and it was also a first win over the French in a decade.
But those bare statistics only hint at the magnitude of the achievement. Vern Cotter’s team played magnificently at times, yet also had their backs to the wall for long spells in the second half. Showing depths of character and reserves of self-belief that they surely did not have until recently, they held off a late French onslaught to emerge deservedly triumphant.
The squad had promised that more wins would follow once they had broken their long losing run in the Six Nations, and they were true to their word. Beating Italy a fortnight ago was tough enough, but they knew they would have to step up again to see off a French team who may have underperformed in their previous games, but had still won two out of three and went into this match as the only team with a chance of denying England the title. Scotland are now ahead of France on points differential, with both teams having four points, while Eddie Jones’ side are uncatchable on eight.
After being under heavy pressure early on and finding themselves fortunate to be only 5-0 down, Scotland fought back with tries from Stuart Hogg and Duncan Taylor to lead 18-5 on the brink of half-time. But France reduced the deficit with a converted try in the last play of the half to throw the game back into the melting pot.
Hogg, named man of the match, scored with a monstrous penalty to restore home confidence early in the second half, but the crucial score was Scotland’s third try, from Tim Visser, which appeared to dispirit the French.
If France ended the match bereft of ideas, they nonetheless added hugely to the spectacle with some breathtaking play of their own. Indeed, in the first 20 minutes they played more positive rugby than they had managed in the whole of their first three matches.
The visitors opened the scoring in the fifth minute, when Scotland were a man short due to a head knock from a tackle that ended Finn Russell’s game. Wingers Virimi Vakatawa and Wesley Fofana exchanged passes on the right, then the latter passed to captain Guilhem Guirado who finished the move off. Trinh-Duc missed the conversion attempt, and Peter Horne became the first substitute of the day.
With 15 minutes played, Greig Laidlaw opened Scotland’s account with a penalty. Five minutes later, the captain was on target again to put his team ahead – and then, after a long, becalmed passage of play, Scotland went further ahead with seven minutes of the half remaining. A multi-phase attack through the middle was only slowly gaining ground through the forwards, but then Horne made a halfbreak into the French 22. Richie Gray took it on, and speedy recycling saw Laidlaw give a scoring pass to Hogg, who finished off from ten metres out.
Laidlaw’s conversion attempt went wide, but Scotland soon stretched their lead with another try. A French attack was turned over, then Scotland were awarded a penalty which Taylor took before setting off on a lung-bursting run up the right. The centre just had the legs to reach the line, and this time Laidlaw added the extra points.
France had time before the break to mount an attack, and they eventually scored in the second minute of overtime. A lineout drive began the move, and eventually Gael Fickou, with two teammates outside him, found a gap to cross the line. Maxime Machenaud’s conversion made the score at the break 18-12.
If that was a massive morale boost for the French, Hogg’s 46th-minute penalty from just inside Scotland territory had a similar effect on Scotland. France were soon back to a six-point deficit, however, thanks to another Machenaud penalty. With a little more than 20 minutes to play, Machenaud was on target again from 45m to make it 21-18.
Scotland had hardly been in the French 22 in the second half, but with quarter of an hour to play they grabbed their third try. Alex Dunbar did the damage through the middle, Richie Gray and WP Nel took the ball to within metres, and then, playing penalty advantage, Laidlaw lobbed a pass out to the left wing. Flicked on by Taylor, the ball reached Tim Visser, who dived over to a rapturous reception.
Laidlaw failed to convert then, but with five minutes to go the captain was on the mark with a penalty to make it 29-18. France still had time to bridge that gap, and four minutes from time Fickou crossed the line, but the referee chalked it off for a forward pass.
He had been playing penalty advantage, but the resultant lineout was halted and Scotland got the scrum. They were able to play out the game from there, stifling the closing minutes in a display of self-possessed rugby that was just one of many examples of the new-found maturity in the team.