WATCH: Scenes in Paris with TWO players sent off in the opening 20 minutes of the Six Nations clash

Jared Wright
Scotland vice-captain Grant Gilchrist was given his marching orders just seven minutes into the Six Nations clash against France on Sunday, with Les Bleus' prop Mohamed Haouas following soon after.

Scotland vice-captain Grant Gilchrist was given his marching orders just seven minutes into the Six Nations clash against France on Sunday, with Les Bleus’ prop Mohamed Haouas following soon after.

After France opened the scoring through a Romain Ntamack try, Scotland were further put on the back foot moments later.

Stuart Hogg kicked deep from the restart, and Gilchrist led the charge but got his technique all wrong as he thundered into Anthony Jelonch.

Gilchrist’s red card

He collided with the flanker’s face with a tucked shoulder and was shown a red card after the TMO notified the referee Nika Amashukeli.

‘Direct shoulder to the head, no mitigation,’ Amashukeli told Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie, before issuing the red card.

Although Gilchrist’s sending-off was early on in the game, it certainly wasn’t the quickest in Six Nations history.

Last year, England lock Charlie Ewels was red carded just 82 seconds into the match with Ireland.

Similarly to Gilchrist, Ewels was given his marching orders for making contact with an opposition player’s head. He collided head-on-head with James Ryan with a late tackle.

Meanwhile, Gilchrist’s red card is the fifth time a Scotland player has been red-carded since Italy joined the competition.

No other team in Six Nations history have had more players sent off.

Haouas red card

The numbers were evened up soon after, with France prop Haouas seeing red. He was sent off in this fixture in 2020 for punching Ritchie.

However, this time he was sent off for head-on-head contact with Scotland scrum-half Ben White.

Haouas made a poor clearout and essentially headbutted the Scottish half-back.

With both sides playing with 14 men, France were still on top with Ethan Dumortier and Thomas Ramos adding to Ntamack’s try to give France a 19-0 lead after 20 minutes.

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