Rugby: Scotland beat France!

Scotland 20-16 France

MATCH SUMMARY
List of 2 items
??Scotland: (13) 20
Tries: Lamont 2
Cons: Paterson 2
Pens: Paterson 2
??France: (3) 16
Tries: Bonnaire, Bruno
Pens: Elissalde 2
list end

Scotland celebrate their marvellous win Scotland held on for a magnificent victory over France in Frank Hadden's first Six Nations match in charge.

Sean Lamont scored a try in either half as the Scots put on a fantastic display, never allowing the French to get into their stride.

The visitors put their hosts under more pressure as the second half wore on but the Scottish defence was superb.

Second-half tries by Julien Bonnaire and Sebastien Bruno brought the French close but Scotland held firm.

The French were out of the blocks more smartly, but it was the Scots who passed up a terrific opportunity to score the first try.

Dan Parks passed to Jason White when he might have gone directly for the line.

Then with three men on the overlap, White elected to hold onto the ball and he was brought down short of the line by Dimitri Szarzewski and the chance was
lost.

But the Scots' pressure was rewarded when the ball was finally released from a ruck near the French line and Lamont evaded the arms of Frederic Michalak
to cross under the posts. Chris Paterson easily converted.

The Scots continued to belie their pre-match tag as underdogs with some exhilarating rugby and Paterson was able to add a penalty from the French 10-metre
line as the visitors' unforced errors count mounted.

Mike Blair and Paterson combined to great effect to mount another breakaway - the latter being halted by an early tackle, which led to another penalty,
again successfully converted by Paterson.

Michalak underlined the frustration of the French with a poor drop-goal attempt, but they did get on the scoreboard just before half-time courtesy of a
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty, after Bruce Douglas was penalised.

But Scotland increased their lead again with a phenomenal try. A driving maul drove the French pack back 22 metres and as it reached the try-line, Lamont
got his hands on the ball to dive over.

Paterson added the two points with his most difficult kick of the day.

That at last prompted a positive response from the French and some swift passing allowed Bonnaire to cross the line in the corner. Elissalde, though, struck
the post with his kick.

Paterson then missed a straightforward kick in front of the posts, and almost immediately afterwards Elissalde reduced the deficit with a kick of his own.

But far from capitulating as the French applied more concerted pressure, Scotland held firm, forcing their opponents into more mistakes.

As full-time approached, though, France pinned the Scots back and their patience paid off when Bruno powered over, only for Elissalde to miss the conversion
and Scotland saw out the final minutes.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/rugby_union/international/4674072.stm#startcontent

What do ya think people? It was very unexpected. Well done Scotland! Hope England can do the same.

Bloody well done to Scotland.

I didn't see that coming.

I was delighted to see Scotland do so well today against the favourites. Let's hope their efforts spur on the Irish when we go to Paris next Saturday.

I was watching the game but had to nip out and bring back my son. When I got in the car I tuned into BBC Radio Scotland to keep in touch with the game.

Those guys were just so excited they forgot there may be "foreigners" trying to understand them. They went into Celt overdrive with bursts of incomprehensible talk and I had to rely on the screams of the crowd to let me know if anyone scored.

Sure as long as we beat the English who cares about the other matches

omfg! there is now only one team in my view that can win the grand slam now, its not scotland, its not ireland, England is the only team in my view now that can go all the way. But France will be fired up next week so whoever they are playing had better watch out!

Go Scotland....

Well done Scotland