France 28 Scotland 16

Two late tries from French flanker Olivier Magne helped France limp to a 28-16 victory over Five Nations champions Scotland in the Six Nations clash.

Magne's double ensured the formbook was vindicated in a match where an undisciplined France looked for a long time as if they were determined to help the Scots to their first ever Six Nations win.

Stewards at Murrayfield had been put on alert to confiscate any cockerels that French fans might smuggle into the stadium but for a long time it appeared that headless chickens might cost France the match as the Scots took the lead after half-time with France down to 13 men after two first-half sin-binnings.

Montferrand's Magne admitted that Bernard Laporte had not been happy at the interval.

"In the first-half the sin-binnings cost us very dear," admitted Magne.  "Bernard was not happy.  Playing with 13 men is an unacceptable handicap.  We must be careful.  Against a stronger team it would have cost us the match."

Of his tries Magne, an injury doubt for this match, said:  "It was no big deal.  Emile (Ntamack) was very nice to pass to me (for the first try) because he could have scored himself."

For the second he said:  "I anticpated it well and Emile set me up again."

France's hopes of the Six Nations title were dealt a severe blow when they lost to England a fortnight ago but most pundits expected them to easily see them brush aside the Scots who were abysmal in their two previous outings against Italy and Ireland and were being tipped to replace the last ever Five Nations Trophy on the mantelpiece with the Wooden Spoon at the end of the season.

But a combination of Scottish pride and French indiscipline contrived to produce a tight encounter.

Scotland's Kenny Logan had already missed a penalty before France took the lead after 11 minutes with a converted try.

The Scottish side looked like caving in against French pressure and conceded a penalty 10 metres from the line.  The French chose to run it and the Scottish defence was again looking hopelessly inadequate as the visitors extracted maximum advantage.

Even the normally ponderous prop Christian Califano had the chance to show his ball-playing skills as he played the ball along the line where it eventually reached full-back Thomas Castaignede who crossed the line before touching down near the posts.

Castaignede, back at fullback after being blamed by some for the 15-9 defeat by England after an indifferent performance as stand-in flyhalf, had all the time in the world to score and even had hooker Marc Dal Maso outside him if needed with no Scottish defender in sight.

Gerald Merceron converted before a brief Scottish rally.

Logan reduced the deficit with a penalty but another Merceron kick -- this time a penalty -- restored the French advantage to seven points with the score 10-3 after 20 minutes.

But Scotland came perilously close to scoring after half an hour when the French held up a surge from the Scottish forwards on the line.  Flanker Budge Pountney touched down but was correctly penalised by English referee Steve Lander for a blatant double movement.

Had Pountney bided his time there was plenty of support and his colleagues were clearly unhappy with his rash move as the French cleared their lines from the subsequent penalty.

France produced some typical flowing passing movements but then their eternal Achilles heel indiscipline, which new coach Bernard Laporte has vowed to stamp out, allowed Scotland to narrow the gap.

First Emile Ntamack was sin binned for 10 minutes and full-back Chris Paterson, who had taken over kicking duties from Logan who had missed another kick, popped over the penalty.

Then Jean Daude was also banished temporarily to the touchline for a high challenge leaving the French down to 13 but this time Paterson squandered the kick.

The French held on to half-time 10-6 to the good but knew that they would still be two men down when the match resumed.

And the Scots wasted no time in taking full advantage when they were awarded a penalty in the second minute of the second period.

Not surprisingly given their numerical advantage they chose to run it and scrum-half Andy Nicol touched down under the post, leaving the conversion a formality for Paterson.

Scotland now led 13-10.  But Ntamack returned and with the French still a man down Merceron levelled the score with a penalty.

Laporte, who had fielded a patched-up team, changed his formation with Thomas Lievremont, Arnaud Costes, Pieter De Villiers and Raphael Ibanez coming into reinforce the struggling visitors.

Finally restored to full strength the French again started to exert pressure and David Venditti failed to collect the ball for what would have been a simple try after an inaccurate pass by Christophe Dominici.

The game went into the final quarter deadlocked at 13-13 but the French were looking the more likely with the elusive Dominici held up by Paterson just short of the line.

Finally the Scots yielded the try with France's talismanic flanker Olivier Magne touching down from a pass by Ntamack after a chipped kick from Christophe Laussucq but the conversion was missed.

Paterson reduced the margin to 18-16 with another penalty and France had just less than 10 minutes to hang on.

But any doubts as to the final result were ended when the same combination gave France breathing space.  Again Ntamack played the scoring pass while Magne this time cantered behind the posts, leaving Merceron this time to add the two extra points.

That silenced the Murrayfield crowd and a Merceron penalty further assuaged French nerves.

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Marc Dal Maso, 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Jean Daude, 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Sebastien Chabal, 8 Fabien Pelous (c), 9 Christophe Laussucq, 10 Gerald Merceron, 11 Emile Ntamack, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 David Venditti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Thomas Castaignede
Reserves:  Arnaud Costes, Pieter De Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Thomas Lievremont, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde
Unused:  Cedric Desbrosses, Aubin Hueber

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Steve Brotherstone, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Scott Murray, 5 Doddie Weir, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Stuart Reid, 9 Andy Nicol, 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Glenn Metcalfe, 12 John Leslie (c), 13 James McLaren, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Stuart Grimes, Dave Hilton, Duncan Hodge, Cameron Mather
Unused:  Graeme Beveridge, Jamie Mayer, Steve Scott

Attendance:  67500
Referee:  Lander s.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Castaignede T. 1, Magne O. 2
Conv:  Merceron G. 2
Pen K.:  Merceron G. 3

Scotland
Tries:  Nicol A.D. 1
Conv:  Paterson C.D. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1, Paterson C.D. 2