France 27 Scotland 10: Six Nations match report and betting pointers

Result

Round three
France 27
T: Ntamack, Huget, Alldritt 2; C: Ramos, Serin; P: Ramos.
Scotland10
T: Price; C: Hastings; P: Laidlaw

Pre-match odds

4-9 France, 9-4 Scotland, 25 draw.

First half

France appeared full of attacking intent and as well as an opening try from Romain Ntamack had two efforts overturned by the TMO. The young Toulouse half-back pairing of Ntamack and scrum-half Antoine Dupont worked well together and put Les Bleus on the front foot. Scotland, by contrast, let themselves down with frequent errors.

Second half

France found it hard to put the game out of reach but again Scotland let themselves down with frequent errors.

Les Bleus extended their lead through two second-half tries but even then the Scots sensed chances to come back and a late try from Ali Price put them within reach of a bonus point. But France showed ambition by keeping the ball alive even when the clock had gone red to bag a fourth deep into added time and add a bonus point.

What they said

France coach Jacques Brunel
"Of course satisfaction is our feeling after the bad loss to England. We had to show unity and strength. It wasn't an easy match but the team has shown good character.

"We still have a long road ahead of us. The coming weeks are going to tell us what the value of our team really is."

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend
"We started the match poorly - the first 20 minutes which after France's recent results gave them confidence.

"That was through our own errors and we put ourselves on the back foot. We didn't finish off the opportunities we should have for the pressure we'd built up especially after France went down to 14 men when Huget was sin-binned.

"Then we lost a try after half-time which again gave France more confidence and points and we didn't come back from that after it. It's a disappointing day given our inability to capitalise on our opportunities and score tries.

"Failing to capitalise on opportunities and being clinical will be one of the areas we will have to work on ahead of the next game against Wales.

Punting pointers

France have shown they can live up to the promise in their talented line-up, but it's hard to know how far to trust them to do it again. Their pursuit of a bonus-point try when the 80 minutes were up and the game was won was worth noting, but they are still 16-point underdogs for their trip to Dublin on March 10.

Scotland have shown in back-to-back games a worrying lack of end product. Grand Slam-chasing Wales are the visitors to Murrayfield in round four and are narrow two-point favourites.

Teams

France: T Ramos; D Penaud, M Bastareaud, G Fickou, Y Huget; R Ntamack, A Dupont; J Poirot, G Guirado, D Bamba, S Vahaamahina, F Lambey, W Lauret, A Iturria, L Picamoles. Replacements: C Chat, E Falgoux, D Aldegheri, P Willemse, G Alldritt, B Serin, A Belleau, M Medard.

Scotland: B Kinghorn; T Seymour, N Grigg, S Johnson, S Maitland; P Horne, G Laidlaw; A Dell, S McInally, S Berghan, G Gilchrist, J Gray, M Bradbury, J Ritchie, J Strauss. Replacements: F Brown, A Allan, Z Fagerson, B Toolis, G Graham, A Price, A Hastings, D Graham.

Follow us on Twitter

Like us on Facebook