France power past Scotland to title
MATCH REPORT: France produced a second-half power play to beat Scotland 35-16 in Paris on Saturday and win the Six Nations title.
After England’s record 68-14 rout of Wales earlier in the day in Cardiff, Les Bleus needed to beat the Scots and they did so with a four-try, bonus-point victory.
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Match Summary
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Man of the match: Scotland flank Jamie Ritchie is the turnover king, flyhalf Finn Russell was pulling the Scottish strings and fullback Blair Kinghorn was asking serious questions about the French defence. For the hosts, there is fullback Louis Bielle-Biarrey and his moments of magic, along with the organising ability of centre Yoram Moefana. Locks Thibaud Flament and Mickael Guillard deserve mentions for their high workrates, but they were beaten to the prize by prop Jean-Baptiste Gros – not just scrumming – also in general and on defence, with 20-odd tackles.
Moment of the match: It is a collective of two moments – the Tom Jordan try that was overturned on the stroke of half-time, which would have given Scotland the lead for the first time, and the Louis Bielle-Biarrey try two minutes after the restart – a 14-point turnaround. What could have been 20-16 lead for Scotland, became a 23-16 lead for France and the signalled the end of the game as a contest.
Villain: This is easy. It is the Peato Mauvaka yellow card in the 21 for foul play. The hooker was fortunate his head-but of scrumhalf Ben White was not a red card.
The scorers
For France
Tries: Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey, Ramos, Moefana
Cons: Ramos 3
Pens: Ramos 3
For Scotland
Try: Graham
Con: Russell
Pens: Russell 3
Yellow card: Jamie Ritchie (Scotland, 12 – cyclical foul, collapsing a maul), Peato Mauvaka (France, 21 – foul play, head contact), Jean-Baptiste Gros (France, 36 – repeated infringements, offside)
Teams
France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Maxime Lucu, 8 Gregory Alldritt (captain), 7 Paul Boudehent, 6 Francois Cros, 5 Mickael Guillard, 4 Thibaud Flament, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros.
Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Dorian Aldegheri, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Emmanuel Meafou, 21 Oscar Jegou, 22 Anthony Jelonch, 23 Nolann Le Garrec.
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Tom Jordan, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (co-captain), 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge (co-captain), 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Gregor Brown, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Dave Cherry, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Jonny Gray, 20 Marshall Sykes, 21 Ben Muncaster, 22 Jamie Dobie, 23 Stafford McDowall
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
Six Nations
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