France got their Six Nations off to a belated start on Saturday with a 22-13 win over Scotland in the Stade de France, in a game which will do little to alleviate the pressure on either coach to get their team going.
In the end, France won because their pack managed to get more of the possession and because Lionel Beauxis was a little more wily with the boot in open play; neither principle pleased the crowd one jot.
The match was punctuated by a chorus of boos from a demanding French public beginning to develop more than a mite of irritation at their new team's inability to get it completely together.
French discipline was much better -- they didn't concede a penalty until the 26th minute and conceded only seven all game -- but it was their gameplay in general that let them down this time. Where last week in Ireland they had conceded penalties at the rate of one every four minutes, this time the rate of handling errors exceeded that mean, certainly in the first half.
Scotland weren't much better with their handling errors, so it was a frustrating match of rugby to watch. Both sides promised much but delivered very little. Both coaches will have to knuckle down under a hail of criticism and spend the next fortnight on execution lessons: neither game-plan was flawed, neither side lacked quality, neither side seemed capable of catching a train, never mind a rugby ball.
Max Evans and Simon Danielli justified their selections by being the brighter sparks outside the Scottish scrum; they benefitted from the openness of the Scottish game-plan which saw the visitors try to open the ball from side to side even when ensconced in their own 22.
The French also limited their use of the boot to start with, although as the first half wore on and frustration at the lack of continuity grew, a number of garryowens became the plan B.
Both sides looking to open the ball, neither executing with mnuch success. So what separated the two teams was the set piece skirmish, and once again the Scots scrum let itself down, being turned this way and that, once being memorably driven some 10m backwards and generally being dominated.
Had the French line-outs been anything like as good as the scrum the men in white could have been further ahead than just 6-3 at the break, but Dimitri Szarzewski was imprecise with his throwing, Jim Hamilton, Jason White and later Kelly Brown eager with the contest, so French line-out became a source of Scottish possession more often than not.
The clearest opportunity either team had to score a try in the first half was when Lionel Beauxis hacked through a dropped ball in the French midfield, but when he tried to hack ahead the second time, the ball took an unruly bounce over his boot and the danger was thwarted.
Beauxis also missed two easy shots at goal which could have had France in a comfort zone. He landed two out of four to Phil Godman's one from one: 6-3 at half-time it was, after a forgettable half of rugby.
France opened the second half with more of the same: a dire line-out, the defence forcing a handling error from the Scots, a hack ahead by Médard where the bounce cost the French a try.
Moments later though, we did have a try as Médard jinked his way through and offloaded to Fulgence Ouedraogo for the score. Beauxis found his range, 13-3.
Godman replied with a penalty on 50 minutes after some handbags from Szarzewski and at last, blessed relief! The game began to open up! France's backs found their rhythm and Médard was once again nearly on the end of a chip kick. On 53 minutes, Benoit Baby was high-tackled in midfield and Beauxis landed his kick from 50m to make it 16-6.
Scotland butchered the best move of the game by gawping at their own ability to do something good. John Barclay and Mike Blair exchanged four passes between each other as they shredded the French midfield, the nearest Scottish support man was about 20m behind. Barclay was tackled and held on, France cleared from the penalty. On the hour mark, the Scottish scrum creaked too much for referee George Clancy's liking and Beauxis made it 19-6.
Thom Evans emulated his brother's try-scoring feat of last week by slicing through the 10-12 channel after a series of Scottish rucks near the French line with twelve minutes to go, with Paterson bringing the Scots back to touching distance at 19-13.
Three minutes later, Beauxis clipped over his fifth to put his side more than two scores ahead again, and seal the deal.
Man of the match: Max Evans was Scotland's brightest spark, with Mike Blair and John Barclay also playing well. For France, Maxime Médard was a source of creativity, but it was Imanol Harinordoquy whose work-rate kept his side going forward.
Moment of the match: The inter-passing move between Mike Blair and John Barclay that petered out for lack of support. Super handling and running angles, something few others managed all afternoon.
Villain of the match: The French crowd deserves to be frustrated, but to boo so vociferously when your team is winning? Come on ...
The scorers:
For France:
Try: Ouedraogo
Con: Beauxis
Pens: Beauxis 5
For Scotland:
Try: Thom Evans
Con: Paterson
Pens: Godman 2
The teams:
France: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Maxime Medard, 13 Benoît Baby, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Fabien Barcella
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Renaud Boyoud, 18 Sebastien Chabal, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 Maxime Mermoz, 22 Julien Malzieu
Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Simon Danielli, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (c), 8 Simon Taylor, 7 John Barclay, 6 Al Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Jason White, 3 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Moray Low, 18 Kelly Brown, 19 Scott Gray, 20 Chris Cusiter, 21 Chris Paterson ), 22 Nick De Luca.
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (England), Tim Hayes (Wales)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
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