France try-scorer: Wesley Fofana
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France made it two wins out of two in this year's Six Nations after seeing off a gallant Scotland side 23-17 at Murrayfield on Sunday.
It was a third defeat for the Scots, who at times threatened to take control of this game, but the French just seemed to grow stronger as the match progressed.
Both sides crossed the whitewash twice, went into the half-time sheds all square (10-10) and took their shots at goal when presented to them.
However, whilst Murrayfield was given a glimpse of Scotland's potential, the hosts once again just lacked the killer instinct to push on for the win midway through the second half when they held a slender lead.
Instead, Scotland coach Andy Robinson - now with two wins from 13 Six Nations fixtures in charge - was left to rue another one that got away when France full-back Maxime Medard went over for the decisive score just before the hour as the visitors went ahead for good.
Replacement back Lionel Beauxis sealed the deal when he put over a drop-goal in the 68th minute and Les Bleus rode it out until full-time.
The Scots dominated the early stages and took the lead when the outstanding Stuart Hogg, on his first start, was put over in the right corner after some quick passing along the back line.
Greig Laidlaw converted and added a penalty to make it 10-0, but the French soon hit back.
Fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc bulldozed over Laidlaw and when he was hauled down the French backs combined to put Wesley Fofana crashing past flailing Scottish arms to score.
Three minutes from half-time Geoff Cross gave the penalty away and Morgan Parra levelled it up, but the scrum-half missed another penalty shot just before the interval.
Parra was on target five minutes after the break to put the French in front for the first time, but Scotland regained the lead with a brilliant try in the 55th minute.
John Barclay's superb tackle set up a turnover deep in the Scots half, and the Nick de Luca charged upfield, passed left to Richie Vernon who drew the defender and put Lee Jones over (17-13).
But the lead lasted just two minutes - Julien Malzieu smashed through Jones' powderpuff tackle, and sent Medard galloping under the posts for a 17-20 lead.
Beauxis added his drop goal to extend the lead to six, and the French - who were nowhere near their best - saw it out comfortably from there as Les Bleus stay on course for a Grand Slam showdown with Wales.
Man of the match: France centre Wesley Fofana was a constant midfield threat whose first-half try was one for the highlight reels and skipper Thierry Dusautoir was at his typically robust best. But in the end we going for Scotland flank Ross Rennie - uncompromising and tough-tackling, he relished the full-on battle.
Moment of the match: It's always a sight to see a young gun score on debut, and when Stuart Hogg dived over in the corner for his first Test try, we could tell that Scotland meant business.
Villain of the match: No malice to report.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Tries: Hogg, Jones
Cons: Laidlaw, Weir
Pens: Laidlaw
For France:
Tries: Fofana, Médard
Cons: Parra 2
Pens: Parra 2
Drop: Beauxis
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Rory Lamont, 13 Sean Lamont, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Lee Jones, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Denton, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 John Barclay, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Geoff Cross , 2 Ross Ford (c) 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Ed Kalman, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Chris Cusiter, 21 Duncan Weir, 22 Nick De Luca.
France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Imanol Harinordoquy, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 William Servat, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Lionel Nallet, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Maxime Mermoz.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Comments
RobinMasters says...
Of course the referee favoured the French against Scotland (in Edinburgh)! What else would a Brit do? Of course Alain Rolland favoured the French against Wales (in Auckland)! What else would a Brit do? Do you realise how huge this is? Now with 80% of the world top 15 being from Commonwealth countries, please stop that theory of the French plot against the rest of the world. Now if you can't take a defeat, just don't play.
Posted 12:13 29th February 2012
celticspirit says...
How can one not blame the referee!?! Of course there were mistakes on both sides, as is usually the case, but it is a matter of how many and how grave they were. For one thing, not a single Frenchman complained after the second Scottish try. Why? Because there was no ruck former, so that the tackler could just strip the tackled player of the ball. But the offside of the French (quite apart from several times not releasing the ball themselves, while you are at it...) were blatent. Which leads me to my point: I believe it was this very referee (Mr Barnes, in all his aweful incompetence) who single-handedly denied Scotland their place in the WC Quarter Finals: Not only did he not control the breakdown at all in the first half of the Scotland-Argentina game, very much like this Sunday, he more importantly missed a blatent (even more blatent than the French one this time around) offside by F. Contepomi when Parks was settibg himself up for a drop goal in the final seconds of the test. That would have won the game for Scotland since Contepomi was right next to the goal posts and admitted after the game to being about 2 yards offside... Now, I wonder: in that kind of situation, what does a referee have to pay attention to??? Surely, the first, the one-and-only thing the referee has to make sure of when a team is going for a final minute drop-goal attempt is that the other team does not creep up offside! How long will it take for Barnes to pay attention to the game he and everyone else sees? I am not saying he is against Scotland, I just never want him to referee a game of Rugby again because he is plain incompetent, with all due respect! I respect all referees, but on Sunday, i hadnt even checked who the referee was and I realised it was him because he makes the same mistakes over and over and over again - much like Scotland...
Posted 18:57 28th February 2012
Ramage says...
I sat up late to watch this game in Australia thank goodness WA as thetime difference is not as great. However the game for me was ruined by the constant whinging and moaning by Jonathan Davies in his commentary, His soprano voice reached a crescendo as he whined and moaned about the Scots failings was ceaseless. Sure Scotland left much to be desired but his rants of negativity seem only to be matched by Brian Moore.Hasn't the BBC commentary teams ability dropped since the loss of Bill McLaren.
@carpelone I watched the following referees in Super Rugby and Six Nations Pollock, Lawrence White NZ, Kaplan, Peyper, Lawrence and Jonker SA and Joubert SA, Walsh Aus and Barnes England. I watched closely the way in which they refereed the killing of the ball eg flopping on top to seal off or dragging themselves around on the wrong side and to me it seemed all were penalising these players heavily for their attempts to kill the ball. All except one and here I have to agree that the standard from Barnes was abysmal his failure to have any standards of how players joined the mauls and rucks seemed so different from the others. I also felt he was weak in his rulings in the scrums there were far too many resets. It will be interesting to see if the Super 15 refs keep up the assault on the killers of the ball and will be interested to see if Pearson is as weak as Barnes was when we see France play Ireland. I will also look forward to see in the next full round of 6 Nations games whether Clancy Rolland and Pollock are as strong as the refs were or follow the weaker style that Barnes is dishing up. I say this weaker style because surely he is seeing what the French are doing.
Posted 16:38 27th February 2012
howrtings says...
Great game, best of the weekend.
Scotland played some excellent stuff, and I have to agree 100% with Carpelone, wayne barnes' reffing of the breakdown was attrocious. Let the French come in at all angles, grab the scrum half, lie on the wrong side.
I think it cost Scotland the game...someone needs to look at the performances of international ref's ASAP, it's ruining the game, especially at scrum time...
Posted 12:20 27th February 2012
lorenz78 says...
I think Scotland played a good game, but France raised their level when needed to - they seem to be doing that since the world cup. I don't think the Scottish scrum were that bad at the beginning, but they definitely wore out - or had no competent replacements.
In my opinion France is playing very good and consistent defence, but I want to see them facing a really good offense (which will be Wales, unless Ireland shows something surprising)
Posted 11:11 27th February 2012
lawynd says...
Scotland need to do what Ireland did a couple of years back and find some decent props; they've got most other things (and to be fair to Allan Jacobsen, he's good in the loose), but their scrum is dominated too easily. Murray isn't as good as he was a few years ago either, so it's no use bemoaning playing on a Sunday as my neighbour did!
Posted 09:37 27th February 2012
caramba13 says...
Scotland will go nowhere without learning how to scrummage. How anyone can claim that they were 'world class' or 'unlucky to lose' with a scrum that ceded 20 yards on every occasion in the second-half ... and ended in a penalty against them .. is beyond me. When the opposing side choses a scrum instead of a free kick you know that your scrum is rubbish.
Posted 07:46 27th February 2012
ruckman says...
The French didnt even get out of first gear.
Posted 23:27 26th February 2012
Rosbif says...
From a Frenchman, I must first say "Well played Scotland!!" Stuart Hogg looks a goodie. Puts Foden's performance yesterday into perspective. Rennie again good. Ford and Gray in the lineout, re-starts and making yards, again v good. Thinking back now, difficult to see how Scot lost.....I bet they wished they'd picked Hogg vs Eng......
Re Fra, what did we learn? Well, 3 weeks without a game is too long. Everyone lacked rhythm. The "new" Biarritz defensive system needs a re-think - offering a team the gain-line and breakdown in order to "counter-attack" just looks bizarre. Why not just offer the other team a 10 point headstart? Not smart. Rougerie had a game to forget. Szarzewski can't throw into a lineout or, apparently, make first up tackles on the gain line. Hari can't last 80 mins (although he wasn't the only one!!). Nallet, Servat and Bonnaire may be getting old, but they're still better than their replacements.
It felt to me like a traditional game in reverse. Lots of tempo and handling early from both sides. Then game completely shut down for last 20 mins - Fra bench came on and monstered the scrum, Beauxis at 10 played territory, even Scotland started kicking ball away.
Anyone who thinks the last 5 mins were a cruise for Fra are just plain wrong. When Beauxis missed the chance to go 9 points clear, you could smell the fear....
Bravo les gars!! Allez!!!
PS. Do we see Palisson or Poitrenaud next week at 15????
Posted 20:33 26th February 2012
sigzegv says...
second try for scotland is offside ..
Posted 20:14 26th February 2012
atg77 says...
Much better from Scotland, but still lacking that edge. I can't remember the last time we scored tries like that out wide in the six nations. Bring Hogg to outside centre, Matt Scott to 12 and Visser to 11 and we'll be in business.
Posted 18:34 26th February 2012
BigRugbyBalls says...
Scotland scoring two tries at home against decent opposition? When I first read that I thought it was a joke. Looks like I'll have to revise my views.
Posted 18:32 26th February 2012
pantreac says...
Easily the best game of the weekend two good sides battling out an absorbing contest that could have gone either way. Saying that I felt that France under perfomed at times except in the set scrums. Definately the two class teams of the weekend. I was very disappointed with the England/ Wales game two overhyped sides!
Posted 18:24 26th February 2012
jontheref says...
Well france won, just about had enough to win.
Very lack lustre, cannot see England or Ireland worrying about going to paris, maybe another cold spell will help them?
:-)
Scotland showed some promise, but those injuries certainly cost.
Cusiter just not good enough.
Posted 18:17 26th February 2012
jp07 says...
Scotland looked incapable of doing anything with a rugby ball in hand in the world cup. Now we have a moderately potent backline (centres the weakness) and 3 promising 10's. I think Weir should be in front of Laidlaw. Laidlaw has a target on hos chest for any big runners now. We have taken two steps forwards and 1 step back with the error count. I do believe that Robinson has taken us as far as he can (only 2 6N wins in 3 or 4 years). Nick Mallet is available, he took on Italy, why not Scotland? I think England will stick with Lancaster
We have a world class pack (weak scrum today), world class 9'sm promising 10's (I dont think any of our 10's will be world class) but th centres are weak. De Luca played better than he ever has for Scotland today. I think the reason we looked a lot better after De Luca came on was because Lamont was shipped out to the wing, he is not a centre.
Posted 17:58 26th February 2012
carpelone says...
Having seen the match, I am putting my money on Wales as Grand Slam winner.
The best player for France was Wayne Barnes, how he can not see what happens in front of his nose at breakdown.
Scots were not only brave but also dangerous and effective. We will hear more from Hogg and Evans in the next years.
Posted 17:25 26th February 2012
mlbp says...
First of all, let's hope the best for Rory Lamont's injury. It looked extremely serious. We can only hope it's not career ending. It was also a pity to see Medard and Blair limp off. Get well soon, guys.
Unfortunate Scots once again. Their mistakes made them pay a price too high. They played very well in patches, but France looked as if they had a lot more in store during the match. The French never lost their composure. They looked lethargic at times but really dominant up front. Maestri is a monster of a second rower and Dusautoir was his destructive best. Malzieu proved Lievremont wrong again (Huget or Palisson in his position?). Anyway, France are spoilt for choice in every department of the game.
Brave performances from Rennie (what a destroyer! The Irish and British Lions have excellent prospects for number 7 with Warburton and him at least), Gray and Ford. Hamilton deserves a lot of praise too. And I was happy to see De Luca pull up a good performance. Scotland needs better centres though. Ansbro is needed right now. I favour the Scots to beat Ireland. It will be a cracking match.
The French looked a bit rusty at the beginning. Next week against Ireland (I'll be going to Paris again, please let the weather be fine this time!) they need to play 100% from kick off if they want to win the match. Will Saint Andre call Poitrenaud with Medard injured?
Posted 17:19 26th February 2012
melkdave says...
Well a descent game but as i predicted Scotland just fell short again.But god its frustrating Scotland again played well made chances and again the support wasnt there when the breaks where made.France i feel played within themselves a bit 2nd half so clinical in attack and wasnt their scrum good both Ireland and England have work to do there Looking to the future Hogg played really well as did the whole scotish backrowand they improved from the 1st couple of games again a win must be so close for them against a higher ranked team so watch out Ireland lol
Posted 17:04 26th February 2012