France vs Scotland (Dewch ymlaen Yr Alban!)

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France vs Scotland

Stade de France
Friday 26th of March 2021
KO: 20:00
Referee: Wayne "Barnesy" Barnes (England)
TV Coverage: Live on BBC

Teams

France
15-Brice Dulin, 14-Damian Penaud, 13-Virimi Vakatawa, 12-Arthur Vincent, 11-Gael Fickou, 10-Romain Ntamack, 9-Antoine Dupont; 1-Cyril Baille, 2- Julien Marchand, 3-Mohamed Haouas, 4- Bernard Le Roux, 5-Swan Rebbadj, 6-Anthony Jelonch, Charles Ollivon (capt), 8-Gregory Alldritt.

Replacements: 16-Camille Chat, 17-Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18-Uini Atonio, 19-Romain Taofifenua, 20-Dylan Cretin, 21-Baptiste Serin, 22-Anthony Bouthier, 23-Teddy Thomas.

Scotland
15-Stuart Hogg (capt), 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Chris Harris, 12-Sam Johnson, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price; 1-Rory Sutherland, 2-George Turner, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Sam Skinner, 5-Grant Gilchrist, 6-Jamie Ritchie, 7-Hamish Watson, 8-Matt Fagerson

Replacements: 16-Dave Cherry, 17-Oli Kebble, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Alex Craig, 20-Nick Haining, 21-Scott Steele, 22-Adam Hastings, 23-Huw Jones

The fate of Welsh rugby being in Scottish hands is the big talking point after a dramatic and gut wrenching end to Wales Grand Slam hopes. You can read about all the possible title winning scenarios by following this link >>> https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/2021/03/21/scenarios-how-the-guinness-six-nations-title-will-be-decided-by-france-v-scotland/

Scotland

It's a tournament that started so promisingly. A chance of winning a 6N title, ultimately coming down to a tap tackle on DVDM against Wales. Had Scotland won that match and gained 5 points with a BP last gasp score, Scots fans could have been tuning in to watch their team fight it out with France for the title themselves this weekend, even after losing to Ireland at home.

For Scottish fans it is still a crucial match for the following reasons...

The opportunity for Scotland to finish 2nd for the first time in Six Nations history (Our best result being 3rd in 2001, 2006, 2013 and 2018)

The possibility of a first away win to France since 1999

Scottish Lions selection

And on a secondary note, a good win could put Hogg in contention for Player of the Championship for a third time (equalling Brian O'Driscoll's record).

Stats from the 2021 Six Nations

https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/overview/?FixGuid=20FS4243#overview

France and Scotland have very similar statistics after four matches played. Both teams have scored 15 tries a piece, both have made a similar amount of line breaks and scrums and turnovers won. France have a slightly higher return rate per visit to the opposition 22 than Scotland do and nine more dominant tackles. Scotland have a better defensive record with less tackles missed.

RDW wrote:We were in complete control for 30 minutes and it absolutely swung the other way. HT very much coming at the right time!

Yeah they need to reset and do what they were doing in the first 30 mins. But how good were the forwards in defence until DVDM missed that tackle. Typical winger

Tell you what, Maitland starting would have been very handy here...

France just didn’t fancy keeping their composure there

Harris has been immense in defence

Ali price is a disgrace

Get him off now

Harris unbelievable performance

Vakatawa just plays sevens with more men on the field when France attack. I love it.

Players I miss

Gary Armstrong
Brian Redpath
Mike Blair
Greg laidlaw
George Horne

Oh dear, all starting to look a bit one sided now

Thank feck that was a try or it would have been another yellow

RDW wrote:Thank feck that was a try or it would have been another yellow

Should have still been a yellow that was cynical foul play. Stupid that the laws have penalised the French player for not doing a football style dive.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

RDW wrote:Thank feck that was a try or it would have been another yellow

Should have still been a yellow that was cynical foul play. Stupid that the laws have penalised the French player for not doing a football style dive.

Yeah, I did wonder whether he still would/could be carded.

Crucial we get something here

I think the only winners tonight will be the Welsh

55 min. Get Steele on

Harris has been outstanding in defence tonight.

Sam the treacle man Johnson has been anonymous, whack Jones on for some threat

tigertattie wrote:Harris has been outstanding in defence tonight.

Sam the treacle man Johnson has been anonymous, whack Jones on for some threat

Love the timing of that post.

Why do players still try to crawl along the ground???

Scotland doing what France did to us - hopefully with the same outcome

Gotta be a try

Fair try!

Fair try but bloomin fortuitous

We’ve been very lucky with both our tries.

Ok DISCIPLINE NOW

Worth saying our lineout has been excellent

Silly penalty, we really didn’t need that

That's why you play to the whistle kids. Cherry does the right thing and makes sure he grounds the ball and let's the TMO worry about whether it counts or not. It's a clear rip so try time.

flyhalffactory wrote:Ok DISCIPLINE NOW

Ah well!

RDW wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Ok DISCIPLINE NOW

Ah well!

Fecking knew it. Needless

What odds will you give me of Ryan Wilson giving away the game Winning penalty?

Another great end to end game involving France. They are great value in terms of entertainment.

tigertattie wrote:What odds will you give me of Ryan Wilson giving away the game Winning penalty?

How about you being a bit more positive

Just got home. Get 'em!

Flounder can you arrange for a shooting yourself in the foot emoji please

Russell again sodding immature play....no f@@king brain

Is that really a red though???  And Galthie accused the Welsh of playing for reds!

flyhalffactory wrote:Russell again sodding immature play....no f@@king brain

Oi. Be more positive please

Nothing in that for me, it's just a reaction when someone runs at you.

A couple of years ago Russell gets away with that. Classy to see him go and apologise before he leaves the field, always like to see that.

Urgh that's a frustrating one - just a normal handoff but because of the way the collision happened it made contact with eh neck.

As Kayser said it was poor body height from the defender!

So we’re constantly calling for tacklers to go low. Here the tackler goes high and the ball carrier is red carded. It’s starting to get laughable, that’s a split second decision I don’t see how Russell has any control over that outcome personally

Ollivon is a really good player.

I thought yellow - there was enough mitigation in terms of the way the defender came in. What else could Finn have done?

Barnes was talking red from the start

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So we’re constantly calling for tacklers to go low. Here the tackler goes high and the ball carrier is red carded. It’s starting to get laughable, that’s a split second decision I don’t see how Russell has any control over that outcome personally

He led with the arm, worse still it was above his shoulder.....almost inevitable outcome

flyhalffactory wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So we’re constantly calling for tacklers to go low. Here the tackler goes high and the ball carrier is red carded. It’s starting to get laughable, that’s a split second decision I don’t see how Russell has any control over that outcome personally

He led with the arm, worse still it was above his shoulder.....almost inevitable outcome

It was a handoff!

Harris has worked his nuts off this game

We saw from the Wales game that Scotland are good with 14 men!

tigertattie wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Russell again sodding immature play....no f@@king brain

Oi. Be more positive please

flyhalffactory wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So we’re constantly calling for tacklers to go low. Here the tackler goes high and the ball carrier is red carded. It’s starting to get laughable, that’s a split second decision I don’t see how Russell has any control over that outcome personally

He led with the arm, worse still it was above his shoulder.....almost inevitable outcome

Total instinct and with no time to correct himself. And if the tackler had attempted to tackle properly he wouldn’t have made contact with him. Very harsh for me

RDW wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So we’re constantly calling for tacklers to go low. Here the tackler goes high and the ball carrier is red carded. It’s starting to get laughable, that’s a split second decision I don’t see how Russell has any control over that outcome personally

He led with the arm, worse still it was above his shoulder.....almost inevitable outcome

It was a handoff!

No it was a forearm. Had he not bend his elbow it would have been perfectly ok. He didn’t though. Bent the arm and the forearm went into the throat

Spoke too soon about the lineout! Those last 3 lineouts could have for us the game