V2 Journal Match report

Scotland v France 17-23

Murrayfield
RBS Man of the Match: Ross Rennie (Scotland)
Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Alain Rolland (IRFU), Simon McDowell (IRFU)
Fourth official: Andrew Macpherson (SRU)
TMO: Geoff Warren (RFU)

26th Feb 2012
I will be honest. When I woke up this morning, the thought of watching Scotland take on France at Murrayfield wasn’t filling me with a great sense of enthusiasm. In this campaign Scotland have shown signs of adequacy, amongst long spells of poor rugby. Every campaign seems to bring the same promise of a new dawn only to be met with the same old.

And this year has been no different. First came an average England side, that was there for the taking. And away they went with the prize of the win. Then the Scottish team travelled to Cardiff where once again they came away with not much to sing about other than the fact they broke their try drought.

So this morning, maybe I should be forgiven for my general lacklustre attitude. But as the day draws to an end and the scoreboard shows another Scottish loss, I can truly say that this time, it looks like Scotland do have a new dawn to look forward to. Today they showed heart, passion and quite a few other clichéd terms of resurgence and bravery. What they also showed was the ability to break defences, creating chances and pressurising teams. Todays performance showed more creativity than all of Scotlands games this campaign and last put together. The green shoots were suitably visible on a very pleasant Edinburgh day.

And it was straight from Laidlaw’s kick off that Scotland showed their intent. Straight from the kick off, France strayed offside to give Scotland an early penalty chance that was missed by Laidlaw, short. However, the French showed what was to be the story of the first half for them – a terrible kick and an error from them.

Scotland continued to pressure and although they were unable to convert this into points, the French were rattled. Every time they got the ball, they were only a pass away from a knock on or dropped ball. And then in the 8th minute, debutant Hogg went over in the corner for a Scottish try sending the crowd into a frenzy. At this point, France haven’t been out of their own half and look decidedly ropey. Laidlaw hits the conversion from the touchline and takes the lead to 7-0.

This pattern continued for another 10 minutes – Scotland pressure combined with French mistakes. For every Blair break (and there were quite a few), when the French finally got the ball back, they would make a terrible mistake. I can not recall a game where a team has lost so many of their own lineouts. One thing that is noticeable amongst all the mistakes by the French is the amount, or lack of, advantage that seems to have been allowed by ref Barnes. In the first half, Barnes was barely letting the attacking team to get past the game line before declaring advantage to be over.

Half way through the 1st half, both teams start to take a few more chances in their expansive play. First the French break from their own half before kicking the ball to Scotland who reciprocate with their own break from within the 22. This passage of play must be some of the most exciting play of the 6 nations so far – its quite simply exhilarating and the crowd are loving it too. And the Scots react to the cheers, causing the French to go offside once more. Laidlaw converts to take it to 10 – 0.

From the restart, France get a penalty back after Laidlaw slows the ball in the ruck and quite remarkably they go for touch again after having treated the ball thus far like a wet bar of soap. However, this time it paid off as the French spread the ball across the field and feed it to Fofana. He breaks through 3 Scots players to go over with some quick thinking footwork. The conversion by Parra takes it to 10 – 7.

This time from the kick off the game is stopped after a horrific looking injury to Rory Lamont; that appears to be a broken leg. Unfortunately for Lamont his game is over and he is replaced by DeLuca.

The rest of the half carried on without much incident until right before half time, the French get a penalty that Parra converts to take the scores level. Unfortunately for the Scots, moments later, Parra gets another chance from the very same spot but this time misses the penalty for a high tackle as the clock finishes for half time. 10-10 at the half is most probably the fair result on the balance of play.

A fantastic first half with Scotland showing a real flair not seen by them for several years. And the second half starts with the same tempo of the first one but with France laying siege to Scotlands 22 this time. The Scots bravely defended their goal line but eventually conceded the penalty allowing Parra to give the French the lead 10-13.

At this point the game becomes much more open and mistakes are being made by both sides. However, much to the chagrin of the home crowd, the ref seems to be awarding the majority of the decision in the direction of the French.

The game continued to be a game of back and forth errors but it was always compelling. And then Scotland did the unthinkable – they scored for a second time in a game! Lee Jones breaks away after a strange pick up in midfield for another try. Vernon with the final pass. Weir converts to make it 17-13. A very good try even if the original pick up was questionable.

Suddenly the crowd and Scotland are unstoppable, breaking tackles for fun. The tempo and attitude coming from the pitch banishes all of my previous negativity. And just as quick as the Scots are flying, the French counter and hit back with a try of their own. A truly great break as France tear through the defence and drop it under the posts. A conversion later and France are now leading 17-20.

With 10 minutes to go, that was unfortunately it for Scotland. The high tempo and creativity had run its course. The mistakes that were so prevalent in the French side in the first half were now the sole domain of the Scots. That combined with some inconsistent refereeing by Barnes, seemed to sap all of the life from the Scottish. By the time that the French added a drop goal, the Scottish had visibly been beaten.

But let's not dwell on that. The Scottish were always expected to lose today. However, this performance and loss showed that they can compete at the highest level and score the tries needed to win games. This wasn’t a brave performance. This was a rebirth. So as I return home, I am not disappointed with the inevitable scoreline. I am instead lifted by what was an immensely enjoyable spectacle and a real reason to be optimistic.

Dare I say it, that it’s a new dawn for Scotland? On this performance, I finally believe it.


Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); 14 Rory Lamont (Glasgow Warriors), 13 Sean Lamont (Scarlets), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Lee Jones (Edinburgh Rugby); 10 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby), 9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh Rugby); 1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh Rugby), 2 Ross Ford (CAPTAIN, Edinburgh Rugby), 3 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby), 4 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), 5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester), 6 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 7 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby), 8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby)

Substitutes: 16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester) for Ford (69min), 17 Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors) for Cross (62min), 18 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) for Hamilton (69min), 19 Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks) for Denton (53min), 20 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) for Blair (31min), 21 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) for Laidlaw (49min), 22 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby) for Rory Lamont (31min)

France: 15 Maxime Medard (Toulouse); 14 Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), 13 Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), 12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont Auvergne), 11 Julien Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne); 10 Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), 9 Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne); 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse), 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), 3 Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), 4 Pascal Pape (Stade Francais), 5 Yoan Maestri (Toulouse), 6 Thierry Dusautoir (CAPTAIN, Toulouse), 7 Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), 8 Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)

Substitutes: 16 William Servat (Toulouse) for Szarzewski (51min), 17 Vincent Debaty (Clermont Auvergne) for Poux (51min), 18 Lionel Nallet (Racing Metro 92) for Maestri (66min), 19 Julien Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne) for Picamoles (59min), 20 Julien Dupuy (Stade Francais) for Parra (75min), 21 Lionel Beauxis (Toulouse) for Medard (62min), 22 Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan)

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