Schoeman scores as 14-man Scotland fight back to edge France in thriller
REPORT: Scotland produced a strong second-half fightback to beat an understrength French team 25-21 in a World Cup warm-up match at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The home fans were silenced in the first half with the visitors outplaying the hosts on their way to a 21-3 lead at the break.
However, the Scottish came out firing in the second half and they found some cohesion with Darcy Graham, Pierre Schoeman and Dave Cherry scoring tries, which helped them secure the win.
Gregor Townsend’s team also played the last 30 minutes of the game with 14 men. Prop Zander Fagerson had his yellow card for a dangerous cleanout upgraded to a red card under the new Foul Play Review system.
Scotland opened the scoring with a Finn Russell penalty in the fourth minute before things started to go pear-shaped for the hosts.
France looked like the better team with ball in hand and they were rewarded for their great interplay when scrumhalf Baptiste Couilloud crossed the tryline in the 12th minute.
The visitors were in again 13 minutes later when wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey was on hand to finish some great backline work from his teammates.
Things went from bad to worse for the Scots just before half-time when lock Cameron Woki crashed over for France’s third try.
Flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert converted all three tries in the first half.
Scotland needed to be the first to score a try in the second half they did when Graham beat a French player to the ball after a neat cross-kick.
Russell added the extra two points with the conversion to reduce France’s lead to 11 points.
Scotland continued to apply pressure inside the visitors’ half and they were rewarded in the 57th minute when Schoeman crashed over for a try.
Russell made it a four-point ball game with the conversion.
The home side then took the lead in the 67th minute after replacement hooker Dave Cherry was driven over the tryline from a maul.
Russell could not find the direction with his conversion attempt. However, he did give his team a four-point lead in the 76th minute with a penalty.
France were threatening to spoil Scotland’s day in the final minutes with some sustained pressure, but the Scottish defence stood firm in the end.
Meanwhile, Scotland will be sweating over scrumhalf Ben White, who limped off with an ankle injury.
There will also be some concern over Fagerson’s availability for the World Cup after his foul-play incident.
“We’ll wait and see what happens [with Fagerson],” Townsend told Amazon Prime. “He has to do better at making sure he gets under the chest of the French player.
“Ben White did have an ankle injury coming into camp. We hope that it won’t keep him out too long, but we’ll wait and see.”
Man of the match: Duhan van der Merwe was a colossus out wide with his big frame and speed. He beat defenders with ease and he got his team over the advantage line on numerous occasions. However, the award must go to his teammate Blair Kinghorn, who filled Stuart Hogg’s fullback shoes excellently. Kinghorn was a constant threat on attack when he joined the line and his defensive game at the back was great as well.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Tries: Graham, Schoeman, Cherry
Cons: Russell 2
Pens: Russell 2
For France:
Tries: Couilloud, Bielle-Biarrey, Woki
Cons: Jalibert 3
Red card (upgraded from yellow card): Zander Fagerson (Scotland, 51′ – foul play, dangerous cleanout)
Teams:
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (captain), 9 Ben White, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 WP Nel, 19 Scott Cummings, 20 Rory Darge, 21 George Horne, 22 Cameron Redpath, 23 Ollie Smith.
France: 15 Brice Dulin (captain), 14 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 13 Emilien Gailleton, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Ethan Dumortier, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Baptiste Couilloud, 8 Yoan Tanga, 7 Sekou Macalou, 6 Paul Boudehent, 5 Bastien Chalureau, 4 Cameron Woki, 3 Demba Bamba, 2 Pierre Bourgarit, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros.
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Paul Willemse, 20 Dylan Cretin, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Antoine Hastoy, 23 Arthur Vincent.
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Frank Murphy (Ireland) & Federico Vedovelli (Italy)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Additional reporting: AFP
