France bring Scotland back down to earth
France inflicted more Paris misery on Scotland with a pulsating 22-16 Six Nations victory despite yet another try from the in-form Stuart Hogg in his 50th international.
Scotland had high hopes of ending an 18-year wait for a win in the French capital on Sunday after beating Ireland on the opening weekend of the tournament, but they were brought back down to earth at Stade de France.
France could consider themselves unfortunate to suffer defeat against England at Twickenham last weekend, but Camille Lopez scored 17 points with the boot as Guy Noves’ powerful side got up and running with a first win.
Hogg celebrated becoming the youngest Scot to win a half-century of caps at the age of 24 by scoring in his fourth successive Six Nations match in the first half and there was a first Test try for Tim Swinson just after the break.
Les Bleus controlled much of a compelling game, though, with Gael Fickou scoring their only try in the second half and fly-half Lopez converting two of his five penalties in the last 10 minutes to seal the victory.
Remi Lamerat also had a try somewhat controversially ruled out, but Scotland were unable to claim their first win in Paris since 1999 and also lost captain Greig Laidlaw, John Barclay, John Hardie and Fraser Brown to injury as they came away with a losing bonus point.
Les Bleus started with great energy and intensity with the backing of a vociferous crowd and Lopez put them in front from the tee, but they were soon behind when Hogg had another moment to savour.
The fleet-footed full-back took an offload from Huw Jones and Baptiste Serin was unable to prevent him from going over in the corner following a sustained spell of pressure 16 minutes in.
Laidlaw’s conversion attempt struck the crossbar and Les Bleus were back in front courtesy of a second Lopez penalty.
Injured captain Laidlaw was replaced by Ali Price, whose first contribution was to shove Lopez when he refused to release the ball and the new scrum-half breathed a sigh of relief as the France number 10 missed from the tee after referee Jaco Peyper reversed the penalty.
France were getting plenty of quick ball and it came as no surprise when Fickou burst through wide on the right to dot down and Lopez added the extras, but two Finn Russell penalties reduced the deficit to two points at the break.
Scotland lost stand-in skipper Barclay to a head injury and his replacement Hardie also limped off just after the break, but Swinson made the most of his chance by surging under the posts with his first touch after Tommy Seymour benefited from a lucky bounce and fed the rampaging lock.
Russell inexplicably scuffed his conversion under the posts and France were level at 16-16 when Lopez made no mistake with another three-pointer.
Scott Spedding and Hogg were off target with long-range penalties before the TMO ruled that Lamerat lost control of the ball and knocked on when he attempted to touch down for a second France try 12 minutes from time.
But Lopez had the final say, slotting over two penalties to give France a deserved win.
Key Opta stats:
– France remain undefeated in nine home fixtures against Scotland in the Six Nations, though only two of their last seven such wins have come by double digits.
– France’s last four home wins in the Six Nations have all come by a margin of seven points or fewer.
– Scotland have still never won their opening two games of a Six Nations campaign; they last achieved the feat in the Five Nations in 1996 when they opened with victory against Ireland before beating France.
– France won 9/9 scrums in the game, the fifth game in a row they have won 100 per cent of their scrums [32/32 in those matches].
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments