The hosts made the stronger start, with fullback Thomas Ramos slotting an early penalty before inside centre Yoram Moefana crashed over for the opening try after a slick offload from Gaël Fickou. Ramos’ conversion gave France a 10-0 lead, but when hooker Peato Mauvaka saw yellow for a reckless collision, Scotland’s challenge appeared to have minimised somewhat.
First, Scotland fly-half Finn Russell capitalised on the numerical advantage to get the visitors on the board from the tee, before an outstanding defensive effort from Ben White denied France a second try. Ramos extended the lead again – his penalty making him the highest points scorer in French history – but wing Darcy Graham’s superbly timed run and finish off a delayed Russell pass hauled Scotland back into contention at 13-10.
A yellow card for Jean-Baptiste Gros compounded French frustrations after repeated infringements in their own 22, allowing Russell to level the scores with a simple penalty. But Ramos had the final say of the half, punishing Scotland for a breakdown offence to nudge France back ahead at the interval.
Before the first half was over, Blair Kinghorn appeared to have created a sumptuous try, one started when the Scotland and Toulouse fullback set off on a dizzying run that was finished by inside centre Tom Jordan crossing the line. Instead, replays showed he was in fact in touch before he’d offloaded the ball.
Nonetheless, it served to remind France that Scotland were here to play.
But it was the man of the moment, wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who took control of the narrative minutes into the second half, scoring a record-breaking eighth try of the Championship – going one clear of Ireland’s Jacob Stockdale to do so. It all started with a forced error by Russell, tackled as he went to offload out the back in the French half. The ball went to ground, and wing Damian Penaud gratefully scooped it up.
Graham gave good chase, though, and Penaud fed the ball to fleet-footed Bielle-Biarrey to run in the historic score. Ramos converted: 23-13.
Things were looking too close for comfort on the scoreboard for France as the hour mark closed – England having crushed Wales a couple of hours earlier – until Ramos exposed a gap out wide in the Scottish defence and, showing the sort of pace more associated with his wide men in the back three, went over for Les Bleus’ third try.
Naturally, Ramos converted his own try to give France a 14-point buffer with a quarter left in the match: 30-16.
Now France had their tails up, and when Bielle-Biarrey drew the attentions of two defenders in the Scots’ 22, it allowed him to free up Gaël Fickou, who offloaded to his midfield partner Moefana for his second try in the corner.
That was France’s 30th try of the Championship, exceeding the previous record held by England from 2001, and how they have entertained in reaching this new milestone.
Scotland threw on Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall, Ben Muncaster and Rory Sutherland with just over ten minutes left in the hope of turning the tide somehow, and with France tiring, it had the desired effect – for a short while, at least.
Once France knew they were on the home stretch, however, they found the extra energy to close out the match, despite the huge sense of renewed pressure from Gregor Townsend’s men.
What a tournament it has been for the men in blue, who but for a disastrous single-point loss to England, would tonight have been crowned Grand Slam champions too.