So maybe France are not as good as we thought. Maybe England not as bad. Italy definitely better. But Scotland. Bloody hell.
This was a rout of the Six Nations favourites, an absolute rout. The scoreline, outlandish though it may seem from the championship’s serial underachievers, in no way flatters Scotland. Indeed, it might be said to underestimate how comprehensive this win was. Scotland’s regret will be to have conceded four tries in the last 15 minutes. That denies Scotland top-of-the-table status going into the final round. France remain on course, just about. Their bonus point, ending up with six tries out of the game’s 13, keeps them ahead of Scotland on points difference. Such is that margin, the title remains France’s to lose.
But let’s focus on the seven tries Scotland scored. The seventh, scored by Tom Jordan in the 63rd minute, put the hosts 47-14 up. Not even Scotland, their recent history replete with tales of agony, could lose from there. A Finn Russell penalty with a couple of minutes to go brought up the 50, but Thomas Ramos’s second try of the day in the last play of the game gave France the final word.
It was clear more or less from the off that this, the most anticipated match yet of the championship, was not going to disappoint. The sun was out on a crisp spring afternoon, the French too in fine voice. And the wingers were quick to make their impression, always a good sign, the two pairs sharing the game’s first four tries between themselves, each one a gem. Even when Pierre Schoeman, a prop would you believe, muscled his way on to the scoresheet, eight minutes from the break to earn Scotland a 19-14 interval lead, he did it with a certain panache, reward for some sterling work with ball in hand.
Darcy Graham finally pulled ahead of Duhan van der Merwe at the top of Scotland’s try-scoring chart when he went over for his 36th Test try after only four minutes. Scotland’s midfield was in imperious form, Huw Jones’s half-break paving the way, and Russell looping round Sione Tuipulotu to put Graham away. But it was soon over to France’s marquee players to turn the game either side of the 20-minute mark.
Antoine Dupont ripped the ball off Tuipulotu like the back-row forward he could probably be if he wanted, and the ball was whipped wide to that man again, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, to score out wide. A few minutes later, he turned provider, his chip setting up Théo Attissogbe for France’s second.
But Scotland utterly dominated the second quarter from there. Kyle Steyn was worked over from a sweet lineout move, before Schoeman had his moment in the sun, picking from the base of a ruck and dummying his way over from close range. Matthieu Jalibert was shown yellow, to boot.
Scotland Kinghorn; Graham, Jones (Jordan 56), Tuipulotu, Steyn (Douglas 66); Russell, White (Horne 63); Schoeman (Sutherland 63), Turner (Ashman 54), Rae (Z Fagerson 40), Brown (Gilchrist 32), Cummings (Bayliss 54), M Fagerson, Darge, Dempsey.
Tries Graham 2, Steyn 2, Schoeman, White, Jordan. Cons Russell 6. Pen Russell.
France Ramos; Attissogbe, Depoortere (Barassi 45), Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Jalibert, Dupont (Serin 70); Gros (Neti 54), Marchand (Mauvaka 45), Aldegheri (Bamba 54), Ollivon (Meafou 45), Guillard (Flament 45), Cros, Jégou, Jelonch (Nouchi 43). Yellow card Jalibert 32, Nouchi 59.
Tries Ramos 2, Bielle-Biarrey, Attissogbe, Dupont, Jégou. Cons Ramos 5.
Referee Angus Gardner (Aus).
Scotland couldn’t score while he was away, but, boy, they did when he came back. Four tries in the next 20 minutes blew the French away.
First the bonus-point try. Another attacking lineout, another series of charges, and Ben White sniped over by the posts, following a muscular carry by Zander Fagerson, brought off the bench at the end of the first half.
Even Dupont, it seems, might be human. His pass was picked off by Steyn a few minutes later, and he ran home for his second. Graham answered back with his second four minutes later again, before Dupont’s wild forward pass behind his own line offered up the attacking scrum from which Jordan completed the rout. We still had a quarter of an hour to play.
Credit to France. They kept coming. Dupont reimposed some measure of his class with a try in the 66th minute, and three more followed in the last 10, now with his deputy Baptiste Serin pulling the strings with aplomb. Ramos clinched the bonus point with five to go, and a sweetly worked try by Oscar Jégou paved the way for Ramos’s second, another beauty.
But it does not change the fact Scotland have won three in a row now. They have produced two championship-defining performances here at Murrayfield. After years of exhilarating rugby spoiled time and again by mental weakness, they have already backed up the promise with a level of achievement that Gregor Townsend richly deserves so deep into his rein. This was a joy to behold. Rugby. Bloody hell.
