6N 2017: France v Scotland, 12 February

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FRANCE v SCOTLAND
12 February 2017
16:00 CET (UTC+1)
Stade de France, Paris

Referee: Jaco Peyper (RSA)
Touch judges: John Lacey (IRE) & Luke Pearce (ENG)
TMO: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRE)

Live on [BBC, RTE, DMAX, FR2, ITV (H)]

A. Head to Head

90 Played 90
52 Won 35
3 Drawn 3
35 Lost 52
1,280 Points 1,102

B. Recent Form

13 March 2016
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
29 – 18 to Scotland

5 September 2015
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
19 – 16 to France

7 February 2015
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
15 – 8 to France

8 March 2014
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
17 – 19 to France

16 March 2013
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
23 – 16 to France

26 February 2012
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
17 – 23 to France

C. Teams

FRANCE 

15-Scott Spedding; 14-Noa Nakaitaci, 13-Remi Lamerat, 12-Gael Fickou, 11-Virimi Vakatawa; 10-Camille Lopez, 9-Baptiste Serin; 1-Cyril Baille, 2-Guilhem Guirado, 3-Uini Atonio, (captain), 4-Sebastien Vahaamahina, 5-Yoann Maestri, 6-Loann Goujon, 7-Kevin Gourdon, 8-Louis Picamoles,

Replacements: 16-Christopher Tolofua, 17-Rabah Slimani, 18-Xavier Chiocci, 19-Julian Le Devedec, 20-Damien Chouly, 21-Maxime Machenaud, 22-Jean-Marc Doussain, 23-Yoann Huget

SCOTLAND

15-Stuart Hogg, 14-Sean Maitland, 13-Tommy Seymour, 12-Huw Jones, 11-Alex Dunbar, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Greig Laidlaw; 1-Allan Dell, 2-Fraser Brown, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Jonny Gray, 6-John Barclay, 7-Josh Strauss, 8- Hamish Watson.

Replacements: 16-Ross Ford, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Tim Swinson, 20-John Hardie, 21-Alistair Price, 22-Duncan Weir, 23-Mark Bennett.

Huge defence on our line!

Jocko Puyper!

Ridiculous.

Well I cant complain that Scotland haven't had a fair share of the decisions today

Why on earth didn't France take points when on offer?

Dodgy decision thete. Huge let-off!

They have to kick this one surely.

Why did jones pick and go on his own?

Blinkin heck Scotland. Hold onto the ball

EDIT not like that

Do I not know the rules or are French support players diving in off their feet illegally to protect French ball at the breakdown?

Scotland should be delighted with that. All that French pressure and only 3 points.

Still time for a Hogg special.

Finn Russell has been awful - he shouldn't have shovelled that pass

SimonofSurrey wrote:Do I not know the rules or are French support players diving in off their feet illegally to protect French ball at the breakdown?

I think you are right, sir.

How was that a knock on? Came off his leg.

Should have been our scrum!!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Should have been our scrum!!

100%. Total helmet of a ref.

TMO is an idiot - same guy that said there was nothing wrong with taking the player out in the air in the 1st half - France have a lot to be aggrieved about to be fair ... much as I'd like Scotland to win it needs to be fair ...

France have been given a penalty basically every ruck or maul thus half

That was the Hogg special I'd dreamt up. Great steal though.

The officials are just basically inept all around ...

Baws.

Ah shame

Terrific game. Who would have thought there'd be only one unbeaten team after week two - and that it would be one of the less convincing teams, too.

Can't say France didn't deserve that, they didn't give us the chance to play how we wanted and we got sucked into a battle up front. Well done France

Not much in it, but France deserved it, they had Scotland under pressure for most of the second half.

I still think Scotland's important game is next week though.

France very physical and kept the energy level up to keep the ball moving. Seemed to illegally seal the ball off a lot, but fair play if you can get away with it.

Scotland were horribly hurt by injuries, and maybe that meant they never had a chance to settle and adapt.

Good game though

Very competitive start to the 6N.

SimonofSurrey wrote:Terrific game. Who would have thought there'd be only one unbeaten team after week two - and that it would be one of the less convincing teams, too.

The Six Nations use those kind of lines in their posters That's the madness of the 6N. The French always kind of add the dressing to that too. Some wild stuff from them.

What a tournament: apart from the hapless Italy games this was the biggest winning margin so far.

We played like absolute headless chickens in the second half. Finn Russell was the flakiest I've seen him in a long time. No way can anyone consider him lions potential.

Strauss was a beast putting in 80 mins. Can't help but think the 6-2 split would have been a better option.

Huw jones isn't living up to his hype this campaign.

Our scrum is a total weakness.

Red missed many things for both teams. That second half was soooo scrappy. Only got ourselves to blame. Shows that we need laidlaw out there to control the game because Finn just isn't able to

As someone who is part-Scottish and for whom Scotland is their second team, I do have to ask if there is a Peyper tartan?

Huw Jones lost the ball going into contact too often, he just doesn't look match sharp and we're asking too much of him I feel. Such a shame both him and Taylor got injured at the same time.

Some huge shifts, but Strauss particularly was incredible. Just wouldn't give up.

Wasn't overly pleased with the reffing but we played like headless chickens and just didn't deserve to win.. we showed great heart but were always up against it with all the injuries.

I think Russell showed why we need Laidlaw so badly - Russell was awful.

That scrum at the end that should have been our scrum annoyed me though!!

Heaf wrote:TMO is an idiot - same guy that said there was nothing wrong with taking the player out in the air in the 1st half - France have a lot to be aggrieved about to be fair ... much as I'd like Scotland to win it needs to be fair ...

Scotland could have a red when a high no arms tackle led to both the Scot (Hardie?) and Frenchman leaving field for an HIA.

Peyper was clueless. French coming round the side, killing the ball, neck tackles he just turned a blind eye to. P1ss poor Peyper.

Exiledinborders wrote:

Heaf wrote:TMO is an idiot - same guy that said there was nothing wrong with taking the player out in the air in the 1st half - France have a lot to be aggrieved about to be fair ... much as I'd like Scotland to win it needs to be fair ...

Scotland could have a red when a high no arms tackle led to both the Scot (Hardie?) and Frenchman leaving field for an HIA.

 it was an accidental collision.

I think the two games so far showed why Zander Fagerson and Finn Russell shouldn't tour in 2017 but are very much so in the mix for future tours.

We missed Nel and Dickinson to unimaginable levels, every scrum was a penalty and yet we didn't wise up to it. When Finn Russell made that half break at the end an experienced head would have held on to it rather than try to throw a 50-50 offload to a hooker.

Some people try to say that by trying to smooth over Russell's inadequacies you'd lose his edge I think that a load of absolute shoite. He's good when he takes it to the line, he's second to none when there is space outside. But in a game like today Scotland were screaming out for a Dan Parks esque fly-half, that's where we'll struggle. When Sexton was young he had O'Gara to come on in the last 20 and put the team in the right position on the pitch, Farrell had Hodgson, Russell has Weir.

Peyper is ALWAYS clueless - not sure how he gets to ref at this level

TMO was worse however - 100% try for France disallowed ...

Well played France a tough game, but you got there in the end.

Shifty wrote:Not much in it, but France deserved it, they had Scotland under pressure for most of the second half.  

I still think Scotland's important game is next week though.  

Or the week after let's hope none of the injuries was serious as I'd like to see how this team perform against Wales - could be a great match

aucklandlaurie wrote:

Exiledinborders wrote:

Heaf wrote:TMO is an idiot - same guy that said there was nothing wrong with taking the player out in the air in the 1st half - France have a lot to be aggrieved about to be fair ... much as I'd like Scotland to win it needs to be fair ...

Scotland could have a red when a high no arms tackle led to both the Scot (Hardie?) and Frenchman leaving field for an HIA.

 it was an accidental collision.

I did not say it was deliberate. These days that makes no difference. The fact is the French player was hit in the head by a tackler. Lack of intention is no defence for reckless play.

Exiledinborders wrote:

aucklandlaurie wrote:

Exiledinborders wrote:

Heaf wrote:TMO is an idiot - same guy that said there was nothing wrong with taking the player out in the air in the 1st half - France have a lot to be aggrieved about to be fair ... much as I'd like Scotland to win it needs to be fair ...

Scotland could have a red when a high no arms tackle led to both the Scot (Hardie?) and Frenchman leaving field for an HIA.

 it was an accidental collision.

I did not say it was deliberate. These days that makes no difference. The fact is the French player was hit in the head by a tackler. Lack of intention is no defence for reckless play.

 There was no tackle, so how can there be a tackler. Further, carrying a ball doesnt mean you cant be reckless.

Hard luck Scotland. Big relief for us.
Couldn't watch the game as was stuck in traffic so can't comment much. Listened on the radio which is kind of refreshing as you don't get the usual TV pundit nonsense and moaning. At least it seems we got the basics rights (including the line outs which is surprising) and the rest was a bit scrappy and physical. Hope there is no serious injuries.

We had no game management, loads of stupid pieces of play in the second half. We got up to their 22 with about 20 minutes left then tried a maul which we are useless at and gave away an accidental offside, our danger is in the backs why keep it in the tight where we are getting mullered. Pretty much a dejavu performance, night bits of play but no real plan how to see out a game. France were good, better than they have been but a more savvy side would have seen them off.

The red buttons showed an interview with Vern. He did not look happy at all. Think there's going to be a bit hair dryer treatment at training next week

Nice tries but ended up having the French stomp all over you. Tough game and who knows how much impact all the injuries had

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

Griff wrote:What's under Russell's head bandage? Is it a gps tracker or something?!

I'd guess it may be an impact sensor given his history of concussion. Just a guess though

I'd suggest it's just padding. He's taken a fair knock on the head and quite possibly suffered from at least a subdural haematoma. To solve that they'd need to drill into his scull to release the blood and it leaves a soft skin only covering between the brain and the outside world. It eventually heals over but takes quite a few weeks and I have no idea how firm it is after.

Same thing happened to me so that's what I'm basing this on.

As EWT Spoons says, that's his brain. When a tighthead suffers the same injury, of course, the bump is too small to be visible

I think this game showed how important Laidlaw is to the team. His kicking is essential and I think he possibly calms Russell down.

In terms of performance, I'd say Brown did well outside of the scrum, Watson & Strauss did well and were probably out on their feet at the end. Dunbar put in a great shift defensively as did the grays. Other than that, not a great day for the team, but I think that was down to France. They were on the Scottish players before we got a chance to really get going. Plus they were as expected incredibly physical/big which made life harder. No complaints over the result, better team won. Lot of work for the physios between now and the Wales game.

Tough game. Very impressive performance by Scotland with power a plenty from France.

Russell needs to refine his game a bit. He did a lovely offload to setup Swinsons try but as with Ireland there were failed grubbers and risky attacking plays that disrespected the efforts of the forwards who were working their @sses off to keep Scotland in the game. Disappointing and opportunity missed as France were equally loose and made lots of their own mistakes.

A step back but not a disaster and I thought the team looked very dangerous at times. Wales then England, both very organised teams. They will punish Scotland if they play like they did today again.