Four takeaways as Scotland cost of win

A mindblowing Murrayfield occasion saw Scotland rack up their highest points tally against France to put themselves in contention for the Six Nations title on the final day for the first time since they won the last Five Nations Championship in 1999.

They will need to end a winless run of 11 Tests against Ireland to do so, but on the back of one of the greatest days in their history, who is to say Gregor Townsend’s men can’t pull off one more hoodoo-busting result?

Here are four talking points from a bewildering afternoon.

Scotland the brave…and the brilliant
If plenty of people thought Scotland v France might be a high-scoring affair, given the talent on both sides, no-one was predicting quite such a riotous display of attacking rugby, featuring 13 tries and 90 points in one of the Championship’s greatest games.

“Of course, there’s an element of surprise with the scoreline – or it’s your limit of expectations,” admitted Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, who in his wildest dreams cannot have imagined his side having a 33-point lead just past the hour.

The first half played out largely as expected, with both sides firing shots. Scotland scoring early, France’s two-try riposte, Scotland hitting back with two of their own to take a 19-14 interval lead.

At 12-14 behind, Scotland turned down a simple kick at goal to put themselves back in front, in favour of going for the corner. It took a few minutes, and a multitude of phases, but their ambition eventually paid off with Pierre Schoeman’s close-range try.

“I think today was more about us being us and probably less about us winning or losing the game,” said captain Sione Tuipulotu.

“That was my challenge to the group yesterday when I spoke in the changing room before captain’s run – we just have to relieve the pressure of winning or losing this game.

“Let’s just go out and be us and I felt like that was enough for us to win this game and it proved to be. We were ourselves out there. We were aggressive with our play calling. We had penalties. We didn’t take threes [kicks at goal]. We went to the corner and we pressed the issue with a good French team that I felt like maybe threes weren’t going to be enough against a team like that that can, as we saw, score in bunches quickly.

“I felt like we lived and died by our identity today.”

Relentless Scotland develop ruthless streak
If the first half was good, the first 25 minutes of the second half were ridiculous.

Scotland are not exactly known for keeping their foot on an opponent’s throat and France, chasing their fifth Grand Slam of the Six Nations era, might have been expected to reassert themselves after a half-time talking to by Fabien Galthie.

But instead the Scots took the game away from the visitors by staying true to their selves. Townsend could be seen punching the air in the coaches’ box with a huge grin on his face when Ben White sniped over after 44 minutes.

When Kyle Steyn pouched Antoine Dupont’s pass to race clear for his second try, with Darcy Graham and Tom Jordan adding further scores around the hour, Murrayfield was in a state of exultant disbelief.

“It was tremendous,” Townsend added. “That third quarter was another step up. To continue how we were playing, to put pressure on France as they were opening up the game even more. They obviously play an off-loading game and we felt there were errors in them.

“But when they’re behind, they’re going to have to force things. That was as good as that first half but probably even better because of the mental challenge of being ahead and still being relentless in how we were playing.

“The ability to keep on going, to keep being ambitious and so good in the contact area. Attacks are not about individual players. They’re not about coaching strategies. A lot of it is about getting that ball out of the contact area.

“France obviously tried to jackal hard. They and Ireland are the teams who have won the most jackals so far in this tournament, so to be able to deliver that was very impressive. The pack had a big part in that.”

France’s late bonus point changes Dublin scenario
When Finn Russell converted Jordan’s try – Scotland’s seventh – after 63 minutes to make it a mindboggling 47-14, it looked for all the world like the Scots would be heading into the final round on Super Saturday top of the Six Nations table with the destiny of the title in their own hands.

But Antoine Dupont’s try, France’s third, swiftly followed by the first of a late brace for Thomas Ramos in the 74th minute, ensured Les Bleus at least headed home from this Murrayfield humbling with a losing bonus point, even before two more late scores reduced the losing margin to a mere 10 points.

Scotland were aware of the implications – “we got the message on but [assistant coach] Pete Horne who runs messages said Sione had already talked about it,” Townsend said – but could do little to prevent France staying in pole position. With a huge advantage in points difference (+79 to +21), a bonus-point win against England in Paris will in all likelihood give them back-to-back titles, and a record eighth in the Six Nations era.

“It’s clear that we’re still first, we still have the possibility to win the competition, that’s the truth,” said France head coach Galthie as he sought to find a silver lining in his side’s late fightback.

“We are disappointed. We wanted to do much better and we understand the disappointment of our fans. We share it. But we still have a game in Paris. Saturday night at the Stade de France. It’s our life. We know we have to go through this.”

Even after Scotland’s heroics on Saturday, you’d still make France favourites to do what they need against England, playing in the final game of the Championship on Super Saturday.

Scotland, whose game against Ireland is first on the menu, will wisely concentrate on trying to secure a first win in Dublin since 2010.

“That’s way in the future,” said Townsend when asked about the final-day maths. “We’ll focus on how we put our game plan together and how we build a training week so we can give it our best shot of winning against Ireland.”

Changes will be required for Dublin
Scotland’s victory came at a cost, with four players suffering injuries of varying degrees.

Gregor Brown was the first to depart after 33 minutes with a hamstring issue which is likely to prevent him lacing up his boots in Dublin, with fellow lock Scott Cummings also doubtful after being forced off with a calf issue after 53 minutes.

“Sometimes these can be neural and what they feel is a torn calf or a torn hamstring might not be what we fear, but it looks like certainly Gregor will be out and we’ll see about Scott over the next few days,” reported Townsend.

Grant Gilchrist took over from Brown and could well start next week, while Josh Bayliss, normally a back-rower, was forced into emergency duty in the boiler room after Cummings departed.

But Townsend has plenty of specialist locks in reserve with Glasgow trio Max Williamson, who started against Wales but was removed in the first half, Alex Craig and a fit-again Alex Samuel all possible replacements.
Edinburgh’s Marshall Sykes is also back from injury and veteran Jonny Gray has been part of the Six Nations squad, but an unused one to date in match-day 23s.

Centre Huw Jones also hobbled off with a sore Achilles, having undergone surgery in the same area after the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.

“He’s obviously had an Achilles injury in the past,” said Townsend. “He was feeling it a little bit. He stayed on and then we decided to take him off.”

Wing Kyle Steyn, who scored a try in each half, was taken off on a cart after suffering a deep cut to his leg in the process of trying to prevent Antoine Dupont’s breakaway try in the 66th minute, which sparked France’s late flurry.

“Kyle just told me he’ll be fine,” Townsend smiled. “I hope he’s right because he’s in a pretty good run of form. He was amazing today again. And the best thing he did involved his injury – that hustle back to try to stop a French try, that effort for your team-mates. Obviously we were well ahead on the scoreboard but that was great to see.”