This will hardly have Scotland dreaming of a first championship of the century but they are back on track at least. They were their usual selves, brilliant when the mood took them, all over the place when the mind wandered. But the relentless accuracy of Greig Laidlaw, restored to the team and a much-needed focus of accuracy and consistency amid the chaos, hauled Scotland to victory.
France arrived hoping to build on the promise of their first outing under Jacques Brunel – and it seemed as if they might, Teddy Thomas streaking away down the right twice in the first half. France held the lead for most of the match but, as the game wore on, the pace and brio of Scotland’s method proved too much. France surrendered the lead for just 10 minutes but they were the most important minutes of them all – the ones at the end.
Scotland’s effectiveness at Murrayfield is not in doubt, which will make next round’s Calcutta Cup all the more delicious, but not so long ago they might not have found the will or composure to chase France down like this. Two first-half tries of their own kept them in touch but it was the six penalties of Laidlaw in the second half that took them home.
Scotland 32-26 France: Six Nations – as it happened
“There’s a fair bit of relief,” said John Barclay, Scotland’s captain. “You’d think we’d be bouncing after what happened last week. But the hangover of last week means everyone is so relieved to get a victory over a really good French side. You saw in the second half the effects of playing at tempo. You have to be accurate at the breakdown and the fitness tells. We haven’t become a dreadful team just because of the Wales game.”
It had looked, though, as if the looseness of their defeat in Cardiff the week before might cost them again, when Thomas tore them apart for those two tries early on. The first was almost an exact replica of the one he had scored around 13 minutes of rugby earlier – towards the end of last week’s match in Paris.
Geoffrey Doumayrou’s bounced pass disconcerted the Scottish defence – not that this takes much doing at the moment – and Thomas beat Finn Russell on the outside, then Peter Horne, cut inside the forlorn attempt of Stuart Hogg and cantered to the line on an eerily similar arc to that of his try against Ireland.
The despair in Murrayfield was palpable. It was apt that Russell and Hogg were involved, representing so neatly as they do, the problems with this Scotland team, rich to obscene in attacking gifts but maddeningly flaky, their concentration levels unreliable, as if the boring stuff is a tedium for others to trouble themselves with.
The pattern was repeated again and again in the first half, particularly by Russell who kept undoing the fabulous with these pesky little errors, which end up so costly. By the end of the first 10 minutes Scotland had fallen further behind to a Maxime Machenaud penalty, but they responded with some smart rugby entirely in keeping with the angelic side of their nature. Hogg’s chip to the corner from a first-phase move was perfect, and from the lineout and subsequent phases Russell put Sean Maitland over in the corner.
Thomas was at it again, though, in the second quarter, chipping over Hogg to beat Laidlaw to the bouncing ball. Laidlaw was confounded by the wicked bounce, a rare if forced error by the maestro, but Scotland responded with more brilliance five minutes later, Huw Jones cutting a superb line to the posts keep them in touch.
That was to prove it for tries, an idea that would have seemed absurd at that point of such a high-paced encounter. Nine penalties, the first by Machenaud at the end of the first half to open up a six-point lead in France’s favour at the break, accounted for the rest of the scoring. Baptiste Serin replaced Machenaud at the break, and it seemed France lost some of their threat.
Laidlaw then moved to fly-half for Russell on the hour, and Scotland started to come at France too often and from too many angles for the visitors to cope. Fitness is one area Scotland were thought superior. France were noticeably flagging as wave after wave of Scottish attack hammered into them.
Laidlaw’s fourth penalty overhauled France’s lead in the 65th minute; then when Serin was caught off-side with 10 to go, he obliged again, and Scotland finally had the lead.
A sixth followed five minutes later and by then Murrayfield knew. The virtues of Scotland’s pace and fitness were evident, but to make a bigger dent in this tournament it is the simpler details that will require further attention.
Scotland Hogg; Seymour, Jones, Horne, Maitland; Russell (Price 65), Laidlaw; Reid (Bhatti 58), McInally, Berghan, Gilchrist (Toolis 58), J Gray, Barclay (capt; Denton 65), Watson, Wilson
Tries Maitland, Jones Cons Laidlaw 2 Pens Laidlaw 6
France Palis; Thomas, Lamerat, Doumayrou, Vakatawa (Fall 71); Beauxis (Belleau 71), Machenaud (Serin ht); Poirot (Ben Arou 58), Guirado (capt; Pelissie 75), Slimani (Gomes Sa 58), Itturia, Vahaamahina (Gabrillagues 71), Lauret, Camara, Tauleigne (Picamoles 58)
Tries Thomas 2 Cons Machenaud 2 Pens Machenaud 2, Serin 2
Referee John Lacey (Ireland) Attendance 67,13