France won at Murrayfield for the first time in six years with Virimi Vakatawa’s second-half try proving the difference, but it was a deserved victory to end Scotland’s hopes of a final appearance in the Autumn Nations Cup.
The French always seemed to have a power advantage to spare and came out on top in the crucial kicking game, with the Scots needing some scrambling defence on three occasions on their own line to stop further tries by the visitors.
In contrast the Scots rarely threatened inside the French 22, their points coming from five Duncan Weir penalties, and they made a series of composure errors when they were chasing the game in the final minutes.
The French also attacked Scotland’s recently-developed strengths at scrum and maul effectively, and had their discipline and finishing been a little better they would surely have won more comfortably.
The Scots had good shifts from Matt Fagerson and Scott Cummings in the pack, and Stuart Hogg tried everything he could to get them going forward, but France crucially forced the cleanest line break of the game to score their try right after half-time.
The Scots tried hard to boost the atmosphere at an empty Murrayfield with a recording of a full stadium singing Flower of Scotland and a lone piper working in the pauses in play, but France opened by far the stronger.
They went wide off their first ball and although centre Gael Fickou was stopped, the French won the kicking exchange that followed and drove the first lineout impressively. The Scots were penalised in retreat and Thomas Ramos kicked France ahead.
Six minutes later Mathieu Jalibert’s little grubber kick in behind needed Blair Kinghorn to retreat quickly to get the touch ahead of Vakatawa, but France had a penalty advantage and Ramos landed his second three points.
Scotland needed a bit of spark and got it with a great kick-chase which forced France to infringe when Vincent Rattez was engulfed by tacklers, and the Scots went for the corner.
The lineout drive didn’t make much ground, but some hard carries forced the penalty against France and Weir got Scotland on the scoreboard, adding a second penalty kick to level the scores from longer range when France allowed Scotland to exit from the restart with three successive penalty infringements.
Ramos’ mazy run after a wild pass from Dupont set up position for Mathieu Jalibert to drop a goal to put France back in front, but Scotland’s best spell of the half made some dents inside the French 22 and eventually the third Weir penalty.
Straight from the restart the Scots were caught holding on and Ramos put his side back in front again, but the sudden arrival of the rain started to cause handling problems and a spill in midfield saw France penalised trying to recover, Weir landing his longest penalty of the four to level it up once again at 12-12.
France missed a great chance for the first try in added time before the half when they demolished the Scottish scrum and went for the corner with the penalty, but their lineout drive wasn’t well-controlled and Scottish tacklers got underneath the ball when they finally drove over the line.
But they took their first chance of the second half when they attacked off a scrum, Rattez slicing past Weir in midfield on to Jalibert’s inside pass.
Vakatawa was at the wing’s shoulder and although the Hogg tried manfully to hold him up over the line, the powerful centre got the ball down.
Ramos converted and added a penalty that probably should have been more as France twice got within sniffing distance of the line after two powerful mauls made ground against a tired looking Scottish pack, although the defence scrambled well.
Weir landed his fifth penalty in between those two French scores but the Scottish attack showed little sign of breaching the French defensive wall for the try they needed to get back into the game.
They did open up the French with a fine move using multiple decoys and Hogg’s perfect grubber kick forced Fickou to shepherd the ball into touch at the corner flag, but the lineout wasn’t secured and Scotland were penalised as Jamie Ritchie tried to recover possession.
The Scots had a final chance when France botched a simple lineout and conceded a penalty, but Hogg’s touchfinder to force a final lineout went touch in-goal to end the game and the Scots’ winning run.
Scotland: Stuart Hogg (capt); Blair Kinghorn, Chris Harris, Sam Johnson, Duhan Van der Merwe; Duncan Weir, Ali Price; Oli Kebble, Fraser Brown, Simon Berghan; Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray; Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: George Turner for Brown 68, Jamie Bhatti for Kebble 68, Zander Fagerson for Berghan 44, Sam Skinner for Gray 68, Blade Thomson for Watson 61, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Duncan Taylor for Johnson 73, Sean Maitland for Kinghorn 61.
France: Thomas Ramos; Teddy Thomas, Virimi Vakatawa, Gael Fickou, Vincent Rattez; Mathieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont; Jean-Baptiste Gros, Camille Chat, Demba Bamba; Bernard Le Roux, Romain Taofifenua; Dylan Cretin, Charles Ollivon, Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: Julien Marchand for Chat 54, Cyril Baille for Gros 54, Mohamed Haouas for Bamba 56, Paul Willemse for Taofifenua 63, Arthur Vincent for Rattez 70.
Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU)
