France exorcises stadium curse

10:00 AM - By DAVID LLEWELLYN

FRANCE 16 SCOTLAND 6

STADE DE FRANCE - The supposed curse of the Stade de France chose this match to allow itself to be lifted. France recorded their second win in their last eight games at this magnificent arena and left Scotland to pick up the pieces.

There were rarely any moments of doubt as to the eventual outcome. Olivier Magne and Christophe Juillet ruled the hard yards from the French back row, and the fly-half Christophe Lamaison conducted the whole concert with aplomb.

There were moments of discord and the finished product was hardly symphonic, while for Scotland it was a tale of luck, pretty well all of it bad, from the outset.

While they hung on courageously, their back three emulating the front five with a fine performance, the breaks all seemed to go the way of the French. If there was a ball to be spilled or knocked forward it would be a pair of Scottish hands that would do it. If there was a blind alley up which to run, a Scot would unerringly find it. Yet they had their moments: their captain, Andy Nicol, proved sparky, as did his replacement, Bryan Redpath, late in the second half.

The loss of Gregor Townsend with an injury to his right knee after just four minutes did not help. The Castres fly-half, who is now a doubt for the match against Wales at Murrayfield on 17 February, received the knock taking the ball up and into the thick of things from a five-metre line-out, but when Richard Metcalfe followed with a dislocated finger some 20 minutes later the Scots were still in front.

Kenny Logan's first two penalties sandwiching Lamaison's opening shot. The French always looked to have something extra; Scotland, in contrast, appeared merely to be holding on, although they did so very well. But as the first half drew to a close Lamaison levelled affairs and then Scotland were reduced to 14 men when the flanker Martin Leslie was deemed to have caught Philippe Bernat-Salles with a high tackle.

The French, though, could not take advantage of their superiority in numbers and the half finished with Scotland in opposition territory, content in the knowledge that they had managed to hold on.

The pack in particular was piling in with an immense amount of power, disrupting French ball and nudging them off in the set-piece whenever they could. And there was no such area as the fringes, just gleaming cutting edge rugby in the raw.

There was drama throughout and the video referee – Brian Stirling of Ireland – was brought into the action when it appeared that Bernat-Salles might just have managed to wriggle over and touch down after a fabulous tackle on him by Logan in the corner. The electronic wizardry could not conjure up anything for France from that particular incident.

But within 60 seconds of the restart, and with Martin Leslie still off the field, Bernat-Salles got his revenge when the centre Franck Comba fed him the ball and the Biarritz express scorched round Logan and stepped inside two other defenders before touching down behind the posts. Lamaison then added the necessary.

Gradually it began to dawn on the crowd that France were beginning to find gaps in the Scottish defences more difficult to spot, and while their own lines held, their opponents were suddenly imbued with renewed confidence and were hitting back.

The Scots then ran another penalty from their own line. The daring and invention, though, was all too late. A final infringement, when France were pressing again, saw Lamaison dismiss all hope of a comeback when he slotted his third penalty.

Try: Bernat-Salles

Conversion: Lamaison

Penalties: Lamaison (3) Penalties: Logan (2)

Half-time: 6-6 Attendance: 80,000

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