France vs Scotland

Follow live updates as France meet Scotland in the final match of the Six Nations third round.

When the hosts powered over for two tries in the first ten minutes, and with Grant Gilchrist dismissed, it looked as if it might be a long afternoon for Scotland’s optimists. It would have been nice to get another one to win the game.” Scotland adjusted well on the fly to counter France’s power, recognising that Nika Amashukeli was allowing a contest at the breakdown and muddying French ball to stall the hosts. “After a really tough start, we got ourselves back into it. “We felt like we could win that,” the two-try centre reflects. I thought we had that... Finn Russell produced some moments of magic in familiar fashion, but it just wasn’t quite enough. The France defence coach says to ITV: “They dominated territory, they dominated possession, but that is what you expect from a top class team. Just to slightly correct Shaun Edwards, France have not beaten England away from home in the Six Nations since 2005, but did claim a World Cup warm-up win at Twickenham in 2007. “We’ll have a beer, it’s been a tough couple of weeks. Gael Fickou, for me, is a world-class player in hot form at the moment. The Six Nations resumes in a little less than two weeks.

Scotland are looking to keep their hopes of a Grand Slam alive on a trip to Paris. Gregor Townsend's men are playing Les Bleus at the Parc De France in the ...

France vs Scotland is his first Six Nations game, but he has had the whistle for seven other tier one games. Nika Amashukeli is the referee at the Parc De France on Sunday (26 February). Ireland and England have already won their respective games in the competition this weekend.

Scotland player ratings: Scotland's hopes of a first Six Nations Grand Slam were brought to an end in Paris as France edged a...

On just before the hour. Managed the lineout well alongside his brother and added his weight to some powerful carries. Might have dummied to van der Merwe when the big wing was bundled into touch on 24 minutes. Back at the Stade de France since winning 2019 Top14 final with Toulouse for the first time. Maybe a bit guilty of leaving Scotland’s mauls early and will have been disappointed with a costly fumble in the first half as Scotland attacked the French line. [Ben White](https://www.rugbypass.com/players/ben-white/) – 7 At his best, he is sensational. Made an excellent defensive read as the hosts looked to break. [Sione Tuipulotu](https://www.rugbypass.com/players/sione-tuipulotu/) – 7 Found plenty of room in the outside channel and scored two superb tries. Denied a couple of attacking chances by dubious forward passes, but worked hard on and off the ball. [Stuart Hogg](https://www.rugbypass.com/players/stuart-hogg/) – 7

Check out our five takeaways from the Six Nations clash between France and Scotland that took place at the Stade de France on Sunday.

Their defence was stretched to breaking point but came through, their players returning from injury put in massive shifts and they seem to have found an outstanding back up to Uni Atonio at tighthead prop in the rather large shape of Sipili Falatea. In the second half, France allowed Scotland 12 throws for one reason or another, failing to control the one point of attack where the visitors held a clear advantage. It was defensive intellect of the highest order, exactly the quality that defines Fickou’s game, and his display was capped off with both a player of the match award and a late try. But to suggest it’s all Russell is to ignore the part Ben White is playing in releasing his fly-half. They had considerably the better of both possession (55%) and territory (64%) but never managed to quite get the breakdown momentum in later phases to challenge French width. France will be delighted in many aspects of this match. A man known for his workrate, he was absolutely everywhere, tidying mess, stopping momentum and in simple terms, making an absolute nuisance of himself. With Ollivon and Thibaud Flament also having big impacts in ‘D’, Shaun Edwards’ week of rollickings appears to have paid off. Scotland’s response to going three tries down in relatively quick succession was one built upon belief, passion and rather more pragmatically, a fantastic display of lineout and maul intellect, and growing scrum power as the match wore on. In short, two thirds of their starting back-row went before the first quarter had finished. Ethan Dumortier followed soon after, and in the 18th minute Finn Russell produced yet another try assist, but sadly for France, as Ramos sprinted 70 metres to dot down under the posts. Referee Nika Amashukeli, who had an absolutely outstanding Test match, dished out another red card on advice of his TMO and the game resumed as a 14-man-a-side contest.

The Scots travel to Paris in a massive test of their Six Nations title credentials - having opened the tournament with back-to-back wins for the first time in ...