MURRAYFIELD MATCH Scotland 9 France 18: ANDY ROBINSON'S march towards a brave new world north of the border yesterday ran into the twin roadblocks of a French side high on pragmatism and two tries from a player who came close to causing a diplomatic rift between France and New Zealand during the summer.
Back then, Mathieu Bastareaud was forced to confess his sins after blaming some self-inflicted damage after a boozy night out on a mysterious gang of New Zealanders.
Yesterday, while his two tries in 19 minutes may have settled the game, the more obvious truth was there for Robinson to see – that his young side are more in danger of competing for a wooden spoon this season than the championship.
At the scrum, where they were priding themselves on being a match for most, the Scots were simply blown away by a French pack playing without its main cutting edge.
If Wales can put their frontrow back together by next weekend, Scotland’s visit to the Millennium Stadium will begin to look daunting.
“We have a lot of work to do,” admitted the Scottish captain, Chris Cusiter.
He could have added that six days is not a long time in which to do it.
By then, of course, Euan Murray, the Northampton and Lions tighthead prop, will be back, having decided that playing yesterday would have been contrary to his religious beliefs.
But he can only shore up one side of the scrum.
Yesterday it was fairly obvious that Nicolas Mas was making life difficult for Ali Dickinson, while the slighter figure of Thomas Domingo, substituting for Fabien Barcella, was putting Moray Low where he did not want to be.
There was no denying that Scotland attempted to play with adventure and ambition. Once the pipes had died away they declared their intent immediately but sometimes with more success than others. Running, ball in hand, they were occasionally impressive and there were patches of the first half when France were at sixes and sevens.
However, Scotland were pushing their luck when they elected to scrum their first penalty. The frontrow went up and back, receiving the first in a series of lessons which led to the opening French try.
Altogether the Scottish scrum retreated four times before Imanol Harinordoquy decided the time was right to free his backs. He simply headed for the posts and after some sleight of hand from Francois Trinh-Duc, Bastareaud was over in the right corner with help outside should he have needed it.
Nineteen minutes later Harinordoquy and Bastareaud combined again to stretch the lead further. This time, once the rest of the pack had done its stuff, Harinordoquy created the overlap in the backs simply by standing between the French centres.
When he released Bastareaud, 25 metres out, Kelly Brown almost got to the Stade Français centre but Phil Godman backed off just too long to have any hope of stopping something so powerful and determined.
During the week Cusiter had called the Stade centre a “wrecking ball”. In truth he did not have to engage in much demolition work.
Scotland wobbled the remaining seven minutes to half-time and Chris Paterson swapped his third penalty with Morgan Parra’s second, but for most of the second half it appeared France were going through the motions.
Unless Scotland find a way to strengthen their set-piece and learn to score tries – they have not scored a try in five of their six last Tests – it is looking as though Italy versus Scotland in Rome on February 27th might be the wooden spoon’s deciding fixture.
Guardian Service
SCOTLAND: Paterson, T Evans, M. Evans, Morrison, S. Lamont, Godman, Cusiter, Dickinson, Ford, Low, Hines, Kellock, Brown, Barclay, Beattie. Replacements: Southwell for Godman (51 mins), R Lawson for Ford (65 mins), Jacobsen for Low (51 mins), Gray for Hines (66 mins).
FRANCE: Poitrenaud, Fall, Bastareaud, Jauzion, Rougerie, Trinh-Duc, Parra, Domingo, Servat, Mas, Faure, Pape, Dusautoir, Ouedraogo, Harinordoquy. Replacements: Marty for Bastareaud (71 mins), Clerc for Rougerie (4 mins), Michalak for Parra (71 mins), Szarzewski for Servat (50 mins), Ducalcon for Mas (45 mins), Pierre for Pape (65 mins), Bonnaire for Dusautoir (66 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens(WRFU).
