Three takeaways from the Six Nations Round Five
SPOTLIGHT: France beat Scotland 35-16 at the Stade de France on Saturday to become Six Nations champions.
AFP Sport looks at three takeaways from the French team’s decisive win that sealed a first championship title since 2022.
Record setters
Thomas Ramos scored a try and kicked three penalties and three conversions to take his Test match tally from 430 points to 450.
It installed Ramos as France’s record point scorer, the Toulouse fullback surpassing Frederic Michalak’s previous France best of 436.
Winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey has been directly involved in 13 tries overall in this Six Nations (eight tries, five assists), becoming the first player to reach double figures for try involvements in a single edition of the championship.
Bielle-Biarrey’s record eighth try against the Scots moved him ahead of Ireland’s Jacob Stockdale, who scored seven tries in the 2018 championship.
He becomes only the third player to have scored in all five rounds of a campaign after France’s Philippe Bernat-Salles in 2001 and England’s Tommy Freeman in this edition.
There was no such luck for fellow winger Damian Penaud, however, who is still level with Serge Blanco as Les Bleus’ all-time top try scorer in Test rugby (38).
France also went into the match having scored 26 tries. The four touchdowns on Saturday saw them finish on 30, bettering England’s best of 29 scored when they won the 2001 Six Nations title.
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Seven-one split – the new bench
Coach Fabien Galthie gave his ‘Bomb Squad’ a successful run-out against Italy (73-23), something that was confirmed in a record score over Ireland (42-27).
Echoing Rassie Erasmus’ tactic with the world champion Springboks, Galthie plumped for a split of seven forwards and just one back on the bench.
When skipper Antoine Dupont went off injured in the first half against Ireland, Maxime Lucu took his place, but flanker Oscar Jegou was forced to play – very successfully – in the centres.
“It’s simply a performance-based team selection,” Galthie said.
Against Scotland, Galthie made six forward changes within the first five minutes of the second half, and the replacements made their game time count, the giant Emmanuel Meafou at the heart of a maul that rolled 15 metres into Scottish territory and eventually saw Ramos cross for a try.
British and Irish Lions contenders
Fullback Blair Kinghorn and flyhalf Finn Russell underlined their credentials as likely shoo-ins for inclusion in the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
Kinghorn has been in consummate form for Toulouse and has carried that over to the international arena. A gifted attacker, he enjoyed one scything run to split a ragged French defence.
He ends the tournament in the knowledge that he carried more than any other Scotland player in an edition of the Six Nations.
Russell provided a perfect inside pass for Darcy Graham’s try and was instrumental in trying to get his side back into the game as it slipped away in the second-half.
Russell is many pundits’ choice as starting Lions flyhalf and coach Andy Farrell will no doubt have him on the plane, with competition expected from the Ireland pair of Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley, and English veteran George Ford.
