France v Scotland 6N Championship Sunday 26th February 2023

First topic message reminder :

France v Scotland
6 Nations Championship
The Auld Alliance Trophy

Stade de France
Paris

Sunday 26th February 2023
KO 15.00


Well onto the third round of matches and Scotland v France gets the sunday afternoon slot this time around.

Not many would have given Scotland a chance for this game at the start of the competition, but now it may be a bit closer than first imagined.

Scotland did win on their last visit to the Stade, albeit in an empty stadium and over the years have not actually had a bad record against the French, even when we were poor. Scotland are on a run, have a settled side, few injury worries and a mixture of confidence and control that we have not seen for quite some time.

Steady on though, this is France we are playing and they are at home. They are one of the two best sides in the world on current form, even if they have flattered to deceive a bit in their last two games. They will not want to lose this match and go one from three and have all the old accusations about being a flakey team come right back to haunt them after having largely put that moniker to bed over the past few years. You would fancy that they will try and steam roller Scotland in the way that England did, only they are better than England and will maybe be more successful. If they get a decent lead in the game they will be all but impossible to haul back.

So any chance for Scotland will involve them simply managing to stay in the game and to weather the French onslaught, which will surely come. If it is close at the end, a big if, then Scotland may be the fitter team and they have certainly finished their last two games very strongly.

All the smart money is still going to be on a French win, but it might be close and for Scotland, there is certainly some hope. My gues at our team is something along these lines:

1. Schoeman
2. Turner
3. Fagerson Z
4. Gray R
5. Gilchrist
6. Fagerson M
7. Ritchie - capt
8. Dempsey - MoM performance on friday might swing it
9. White
10. Russell
11. DVDM
12. Tuipolotu
13. Jones
14. Steyn
15. Kinghorn

Subs

Bhatti
Brown
Nel
Gray
Skinner
Price - had his best game of the season on friday
Redpath
Hogg

Wtf. Now France was pushing folk off the ball and nothing done.

Brown envelopes!!!

Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

This has been a crazy fast game so far, might France run out of puff again like they did against Ireland?

It's a long shot I know, but not got much else to cling to atm!

bsando wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

tigertattie wrote:

bsando wrote:I think that is the first intercept pass ive seen Russell throw. Going to be a humbling day for Scotland I think.

Eh no it ain’t!!!

Assume its meant as the first today.

Name me an international match Russell has thrown an intercept other than today and get back to me

Russell definitely threw an interception last year v Italy

https://youtu.be/a6uk0l_vK0Y

2:17

Let's be honest, France are miles better. Their defence is so bloomin good. So many dominant tackles and Scotland are struggling to find any structure. Despite some good play and a wonderful try by Jones there has been far too many mistakes. It has been a sublime defensive effort from France.

For the second half Scotland really just need to keep the tempo high and try to tire out the French pack. Russell has been doing very well I thought despite the intercept, he's kicking very well and we need more of that to keep France out of Scotland's half. I'd be tempted to bring Kinghorn on ASAp. Hogg hasn't been bad but I think Kinghorn's pace may be useful for that last half hour.

bsando wrote:Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

France Have some setup and quite frankly it is disgusting

Now let me be clear. Grant Gilchrist was a red card all day long but France sent their medic on to stand in front of the red to stop the game restarting. Even to the extent where he stood right in front of the ref and said HIA. Now yer thinking “great work by the medic, he wants Dulonch off but he’s refusing to go so the medic is standing his ground.

NO. The medic was not there for medical reasons. He was simply stopping the game. The video got reviewed, off goes Gilchrist. But alas, Dulonch doesn’t go off for the HIA.

Utterly utterly disgusting

tigertattie wrote:

bsando wrote:Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

France Have some setup and quite frankly it is disgusting

Now let me be clear. Grant Gilchrist was a red card all day long but France sent their medic on to stand in front of the red to stop the game restarting. Even to the extent where he stood right in front of the ref and said HIA. Now yer thinking “great work by the medic, he wants Dulonch off but he’s refusing to go so the medic is standing his ground.

NO. The medic was not there for medical reasons. He was simply stopping the game. The video got reviewed, off goes Gilchrist. But alas, Dulonch doesn’t go off for the HIA.

Utterly utterly disgusting

I dont know if I agree with that, he definitely needed a HIA after that tackle. Its fair enough for the doc to point it out.

So why didn’t he go off???

tigertattie wrote:

bsando wrote:Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

France Have some setup and quite frankly it is disgusting

Now let me be clear. Grant Gilchrist was a red card all day long but France sent their medic on to stand in front of the red to stop the game restarting. Even to the extent where he stood right in front of the ref and said HIA. Now yer thinking “great work by the medic, he wants Dulonch off but he’s refusing to go so the medic is standing his ground.

NO. The medic was not there for medical reasons. He was simply stopping the game. The video got reviewed, off goes Gilchrist. But alas, Dulonch doesn’t go off for the HIA.

Utterly utterly disgusting

Not sure that's quite right. The French player was not going off and the medic had to alert the ref. That's his job. Pretty sure the player did go off for HIA and came back on, which is also fine.

Gilchrist can only blame himself for poor body position. I don't blame the French.

Yeah, got to disagree there sorry tigertattie. That's just the Doc doing their job for me.

tigertattie wrote:So why didn’t he go off???

He did, they showed him in the HIA room

tigertattie wrote:

bsando wrote:Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

France Have some setup and quite frankly it is disgusting

Now let me be clear. Grant Gilchrist was a red card all day long but France sent their medic on to stand in front of the red to stop the game restarting. Even to the extent where he stood right in front of the ref and said HIA. Now yer thinking “great work by the medic, he wants Dulonch off but he’s refusing to go so the medic is standing his ground.

NO. The medic was not there for medical reasons. He was simply stopping the game. The video got reviewed, off goes Gilchrist. But alas, Dulonch doesn’t go off for the HIA.

Utterly utterly disgusting

His job is to make sure the player doesn't put himself in harms way. After the ref hasn't heard him say, or see him patting his head and pointing to the stands he is absolutely correct to walk to the ref and tell him. 100% correct.

And yes Jelonch did go off for his HIA at that point with Cros coming on.

Collapse2005 wrote:

tigertattie wrote:

bsando wrote:Cheeky bloke doing the scoreboard added a BP try to France despite clock being in the red

France Have some setup and quite frankly it is disgusting

Now let me be clear. Grant Gilchrist was a red card all day long but France sent their medic on to stand in front of the red to stop the game restarting. Even to the extent where he stood right in front of the ref and said HIA. Now yer thinking “great work by the medic, he wants Dulonch off but he’s refusing to go so the medic is standing his ground.

NO. The medic was not there for medical reasons. He was simply stopping the game. The video got reviewed, off goes Gilchrist. But alas, Dulonch doesn’t go off for the HIA.

Utterly utterly disgusting

I dont know if I agree with that, he definitely needed a HIA after that tackle. Its fair enough for the doc to point it out.

Not sure I agree either and the player did go off for a HIA, fair play to the medic for standing his ground

Jelonch did come off for the HIA and Cros came on unless I hallucinated something?

If the scoreline was closer I might feel more confident that Scotland could pull a few scores back, but it's a huge HT margin for an away game. Likelihood of a Twickenham 2019 repeat seems pretty unlikely.

The breakdown has been an absolute riot. Holding players back, straight off feet , in from side, getting in the way whilst getting back onside. Ref is just letting players do what they want .
Not to mention the amount of time France have collapsed the maul near their own line.
They reffing team have been pretty poor tbh.

Halftime. OK boyz, playtime is over. Do it for King and country....

I’ll stand corrected if he want off but I don’t think he did

He subsequently came off after doing his knee trying to tackle Duhan.

This is living yp to the sort od game i rhout it would be France off to flying start. the two red cards is a shame.

Taking the fing 3

Another sloppy lineout drill.

We seem to be trying too hard???

Just take a breath and give it a wee bit time

Dupont is playing as badly as I've seen from him.

Jez, was that really forward?

No 7&1/2 wrote:Dupont is playing as badly as I've seen from him.

Agreed. Such a shame...

funnyExiledScot wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Dupont is playing as badly as I've seen from him.

Agreed. Such a shame...

Lol

Believe in jones

Huw Jones again, he made it and scored it!

Jones is outstanding. He really is.

Game on!!

Brave cross field exit from Scotland

When does bravery turn to stupidity.

Scotland seem to have the momentum at the moment and France look like they might tire first ... the red cards could work out well for Scotland in the end ...

Someone tell Finn it’s ok to go to ground sometimes

Good defence by Scotland there - France needed to be more patient ...

Nopes

Ben White is on fire!

I'm wondering whether Kinghorn might be handy in this game. Plenty open spaces.

Yep - we need him back at Irish PDQ as we're really missing him

Oh well. Price is on. Say hi to the box kick and bye bye to attacking play

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'm wondering whether Kinghorn might be handy in this game. Plenty open spaces.

Hogg hasnt been great

I don't understand why White was taken off?

Taking the fing 3

Heaf wrote:I don't understand why White was taken off?

Me neither. We're looking a bit lateral suddenly.

Blair can’t come on because we’re at risk of losing a centre.

Was really really stupid to take white off

France lucky to getvaway without a free kick at that scrum.

I’m feckin knackered

Wow Wow

We have got the French scrum on toast!

About 11 minutes to get the win. Scotland would deserve it. France look fatigued.

Believe boys! We can do this