SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: FRANCE V SCOTLAND: France 34 Scotland 21:FRANCE PACK their bags for Dublin this week, thoughts of consecutive grand slams alive and kicking, their World Cup plans back in place after the trauma of the autumn and already looking forward to locking horns with England at Twickenham in three weeks. It should be some scrap.
After this performance on Saturday night, Andy Robinson, Scotland’s head coach, described the French pack as the best in the world.
He did not even offer a token defence for the penalty try which his forwards conceded, going backwards, downwards and sideways before the English referee Wayne Barnes stepped in to end the humiliation.
“If I was on the other side I would have been screaming for a penalty try,” said Robinson with the kind of honesty not often given to international coaches.
“So no complaints. We have a lot of respect for the French scrum – I believe they’re the best scrum in the world – and it was a tough day for the guys.”
In fact, so conclusive was the French performance, from Thomas Domingo at loosehead prop to Maxime Medard out on the left wing, that even though Scotland scored three tries of their own – the same number as in their previous five Test victories – they never appeared within a sniff of victory while at the same time suggesting there is considerable substance to the resurgence in Scottish rugby and that Wales are in for a difficult day at Murrayfield next Saturday.
But the French frontrow was particularly magnificent, both when bullying the much bigger Scottish trio or galloping around in the loose.
The final seconds of the first half were lit up when hooker William Servat and Domingo embarrassed the Scottish cover with a dash down the left, inter-passing with their captain Thierry Dusautoir, before a French back got in on the act and ruined the show.
But it was their domination of the previous 38 minutes that mattered most. Domingo, who at 5ft 8in and 16st is far from being the biggest prop in town, admitted later that France had targeted 19st Euan Murray, the Scottish tighthead.
Alongside Servat and Nicolas Mas, who upset the Leicester scrum in Perpignan before Christmas, Domingo helped dispel French worries still lingering after the humiliation by Australia at Stade de France in November.
The decision by head coach Marc Lievremont to take a higher profile also seems to have worked, as there were no other coaches around to give “mixed messages”.
In fact, the only thing bothering France is that Maxime Mermoz has so badly damaged his shoulder that he will not be with them in Dublin.
However, as the next centre on the rank is Yannick Jauzion, then even that loss is relative as it re-establishes the Toulouse link with Medard, scorer of the first try in the third minute and architect of the fourth when the wing broke, then fed the replacement scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili, before Clement Pointrenaud – on for Mermoz – put Damien Traille under the posts. Looking at both tries through Scottish eyes, Robinson blamed his players for turning the ball over.
“There are a lot of positives to come out of this,” said Robinson, “but we’re not here to be unlucky losers and that’s what we have to underline about the way we play the game.
“If you give them the freedom that we gave them from our turnovers, they are a fantastic side; it was shown there today.”
But that is what good sides do. Their unrelenting pressure forces errors and life could have been far worse for the Scots had Lievremont not reverted to type early in the second half.
Having just seen his forwards rumble 60 yards upfield, muscling and bruising Scots out of the way or wrong-footing them by neatly changing the point of attack, the head coach decided he had seen enough and emptied his bench, deflating his team just when it looked most potent.
Match Teams and Scorers
FRANCE:Traille; Huget, Rougerie, Mermoz, Medard; Trinh-Duc, Parra; Domingo, Servat, Mas, Pierre, Nallet, Dusautoir, Bonnaire, Harinordoquy.
Replacements:Poitrenaud for Mermoz (44); Yachvili for Parra, Ducalcon for Mas (both 52), Chabal for Harinordoquy (55), Guirado for Servat (57), Thion for Nallet (62), Clerc for Medard (73).
SCOTLAND:Southwell; Walker, Ansbro, De Luca, Evans; Parks, R Lawson; Jacobsen, Ford, Murray, Gray, Kellock, Hines, Barclay, Brown.
Replacements:Blair for R Lawson (40), S Lamont for De Luca (55), Vernon for Hines (56), Rennie for Barclay (61), Jackson for Parks (69), Hall for Ford (73), Low for Murray (70).
Referee:W Barnes (RFU).
* Guardian Service
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