SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS

France take the spoils
IAIN MORRISON AT STADE DE FRANCE
SCOTLAND ended a disappointing season with disappointing performance, losing to a French team that was highly motivated to make amends for their failings last time out. The Scots raced into an unexpected lead only for France to catch, overtake and then threaten to overwhelm the visitors altogether. That did not quite happen, and the men in blue deserve some credit for not folding under the onslaught and responding with three touchdowns of their own.

The French needed 24 points to secure the championship after Ireland's eight-try victory over Italy, and when Lionel Beauxis converted a Olivier Milloud's try on 61 minutes they thought they had done the necessary before a late try from Euan Murray spoilt their celebrations.

The match ended in the most dramatic way possible with the French forwards bullying their way over the Scottish line after the 80 minutes were up. The referee went upstairs to Irish TMO Simon McDowell, who failed his countrymen by awarding the try and kick-starting the celebrations inside Stade de France. Ireland will rue leaking that late score in Rome; they had already lost the grand slam and yesterday they blew the championship to boot.

The experiment of playing Paterson at fifteen was mostly a success, with the fullback looking dangerous from broken play, although he was never really asked to fulfil the more traditional defensive duties. Sean Lamont and Nikki Walker, with one try apiece, certainly made it difficult for Paterson to resume his customary place out wide. Once again Paterson finished the match at fly-half and made Murray's late score. Frank Hadden may still utilise him there come the World Cup. In broken play the forwards did pretty well, with new boys Johnny Beattie and Rory Lawson showing up well, but the Scots are still looked a little predictable in the backs.

Scotland enjoyed a dream start, dominating the opening exchanges with driving forward play, helped by French indiscipline. Paterson dropped a few jaws when the skipper missed an early penalty attempt and a later conversion, although French fly-half Lionel Beauxis had the decency to do the same with his first pot at goal. It mattered little as the Scots' early pressure was soon rewarded with an exquisite try after just seven minutes. Dan Parks hoofed a cross-field kick at Nikki Walker and the big winger plucked it out of the grasp of French fullback Clement Poitrenaud for a well-deserved try.

The next Scots try came with the last move of the half when Sean Lamont started and finished a length-of-the-field move. The winger took a quick penalty deep inside French territory and, as all the defence were within ten yards of the ball, he ran untouched to the line.

Sadly for the travelling supporters, in between these two scores the French managed a few points of their own. Having missed his first attempt, Beauxis took his second and France were on the board after 20 minutes. The home side continued to dominate matters on the field and this superiority finally showed on the scoreboard with a try from No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy, although it owed everything to his fellow forwards after the French ran a penalty under the Scottish posts.

Things quickly got worse for the Scots shortly afterwards when Pierre Mignoni, always a livewire at scrum-half, tapped a quick penalty, dodged a couple of tackles, chipped the last man and fed Yannick Jauzion to score under the posts. Beauxis kicked the conversion and was soon adopting the same stance as France, quickly back on the offensive, won another penalty under the posts.

Three tries in the third quarter went a long way to securing the championship for France, the last of which came with Sean Lamont sin-binned for a shoulder charge carried out by his brother Rory.

Centre David Marty touched down in the left-hand corner after 11 minutes of the second half. Cedric Heymans scored in the identical place after good work from centres Marty and Jauzion, and Olivier Milloud scored a prop's try, driven over by his forwards as the match moved into the final quarter.

The net result was that France had the 25-point advantage they needed and the final quarter just saw them consolidate, but still the Scots had a say in events when Euan Murray was put over with a long miss-pass by Paterson. Then the crowd had six minutes of agony to endure before the final try from Vermeulen came in the 80th minute.

This article was posted on 18-Mar-2007, 08:16 by Hugh Barrow.