France 31 Scotland 0

Bravery was not enough for Scotland as France beat them 31-0 at Murrayfield in a RBS Six Nations match which had few moments of elegance or beauty.

The French, who were often uncharacteristically cumbersome, scored three tries and go home to France to await the English and the possibility of a Grand Slam next Saturday.

From start to finish there was no doubt who was going to win.  The French had the match and it was only a matter of how many points they were going to score.  That they did not score more was possibly due to a lack of rhythm on the one hand and directness on the other.

Apart from a flurry just before half-time, the first half belonged to France and it was astonishing that the score at half-time was only 11-0 in their favour.  There was no doubting Scottish bravery.

In that half the French line-outs were rickety, their scrums firm enough and the tackle ball went with the tackler.

Damien Traille chipped.  Pepito Elhorga caught it and went to ground against their right-hand touchline.  The ball came back quickly and sped the width of the field as the referee played advantage.  On the left-hand touchline Olivier Magne controlled a clumsy pass and sped ahead, beating off Chris Paterson's attempted tackle to score.  That made it 5-0 after seven minutes.

It was all one-way as Frédéric Michalak and Yannick Jauzion did clever things till a penalty for off-side gave scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili a straight-forward kick at goal to make it 8-0.

Just after this the Scottish fullback Derrick Lee was sent to the sin bin for a gross tackle on Yachvili while the scrum-half was well off the ground.  Off Lee went for 10 minutes.  During his sojourn on the touchline, France failed to score a single point.  They went in for lots of passing and the Scots went in for passing, but neither side looked like getting anywhere until Elhorga came desperately close as he chased a Nicolas Brusque grubber into the Scottish in-goal.  Simon Webster did his best to stop him getting to the ball and Elhorga knocked on, left to wonder why there was no action against Webster for tugging his shorts.

The flurry late in the second half came after strong running by muscular centre Tom Philip and surging blindside flank Jason White backed by a forward drive.

The second half belonged to France except for a flurry just before the final whistle.  Two penalties had the Scots driving at the line over and over, bash upon bash.  The Television Match official was given some work.  A five-metre scrum gave the Scots more bashing opportunities till a knock-on ended the match.

The half started with three replacements -- largely anonymous Julien Peyrelongue for Michalak at fly-half, Mike Blair for Chris Cusiter at scrum-half and Allister Hogg for Cameron Mather on the flank.

Hogg gave away the first penalty, which Yachvili slotted to make the score 14-0.  It became 17-0 when No.8 Simon Taylor was penalised at a tackle.

The match meandered along till Yachvili stole a Scottish ball at the back of a scrum.  The French won it quickly at a ruck and Traille ran a good little angle to send Jauzion dancing through a gap for a try at the posts.

Jauzion got the only other try of the half when France tapped a free-kick and Serge Betsen broke going left.  Dominici protected the ball as he was tackled and France flung the attack right.  Substitute loose forward Julien Bonnaire took out two tacklers to send Jauzion over.

This was the first time in 26 years that Scotland failed to score a single point at Murrayfield.

Man of the match:  For Scotland, Simon Taylor was full of activity, Chris Paterson intent and Simon Webster the best of the four wings on view.  For France, Olivier Magne started off like a house on fire, as if set on proving that dropping him had been a ridiculous error but he faded just a bit as the match went on.  Dimitri Yachvili put his kicks over and the French front row was far too good for the Scots.  But our Man of the match is Yannick Jauzion, strong on his feet, hard in the tackle and he scored two tries by running the clever angle at the right time.

Moment of the match:  There was Olivier Magne kneeling before his hat as if venerating a religious relic.  There was the whole-hearted Scottish onslaught on the French line and the unyielding defence of the French at the end of the match.  But the best moment was that little step by Damien Traille and the sympathetic pass that sent Yannick Jauzion through the gap.

Villain of the match:  Certainly Derrick Lee for that tackle on Dimitri Yachvili.  It looked so calculated as he lined him up and drove into his airborne knees.

The Teams:

France:  1 Pieter De Villiers, 2 William Servat, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 Fabien Pelous (c), 5 Pascal Pape, 6 Serge Betsen Tchoua, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Thomas Lievremont, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 10 Frederic Michalak, 11 Christophe Dominici, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 13 Damien Traille, 14 Pepito Elhorga, 15 Nicolas Brusque
Reserves:  David Auradou, Yannick Bru, Jean-Jacques Crenca, Julien Bonnaire, Julien Peyrelongue
Unused:  Vincent Clerc, Clement Poitrenaud

Scotland:  1 Bruce Douglas, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Allan Jacobsen, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Cameron Mather, 7 Jason White, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Chris Cusiter, 10 Chris Paterson (c), 11 Simon Webster, 12 Andrew Henderson, 13 Tom Philip, 14 Simon Danielli, 15 Derrick Lee
Reserves:  Michael Blair, Nathan Hines, Gavin Kerr, Daniel Parks, Allister Hogg, Robbie Russell
Unused:  Brendan Laney

Attendance:  66324
Referee:  Young s.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Jauzion Y. 2, Magne O. 1
Conv:  Yachvili D. 2
Pen K.:  Yachvili D. 4