France - 38 Scotland - 3 France quickly shook off their hangover after their defeat at Twickenham but for Scotland's supporters in Paris yesterday, this was another performance to have them reaching for the whisky bottle.
No points and no tries in their opening defeats have made it a bleak week for Ian McGeechan's team.
And if the scoreline was not quite as grisly as Scotland's previous highest thumping by the French -they lost 51-16 in Edinburgh five years ago - the margin of defeat was equally bad.
This was a tale of two outhalves. In November Francois Gelez left the pitch with shoulders slumped after missing a last-gasp penalty that would have won a drawn game against the All Blacks. Yesterday the floppy-haired Agen outhalf landed seven of his eight kicks at goal for a personal haul of 18 points and his quick thinking produced two memorable and well-worked second-half tries.
Gelez had been restored to the side only after Gerald Merceron's failings against England, whereas McGeechan strangely chose to put Brendan Laney, desperately poor in the centre against Ireland, in the outhalf role here. Laney lasted an hour after looking marginally more comfortable than a fish in a tree.
McGeechan then moved Gregor Townsend to number 10 for the remainder of the game. He looked the part after the move, carving out a number of openings, but the Scots were already 28 points adrift when the switch was made and the horse had long since bolted.
Scotland never came close to a try, which is pretty lamentable. But not knowing who to play in the outhalf position two games into the championship is inexcusable.
Scotland's only real threat came from broken play where there were some good runs from their number eight Simon Taylor and the odd dash down the left wing by Chris Paterson. But all too often the runs were unsupported, while Kenny Logan on the opposite wing had to wait until three minutes before the end to receive his one and only pass.
Scotland's only points came via the boot of Paterson, who landed a long-range penalty seven minutes into the game after Serge Betson had been penalised for lying on the ball.
France's coach Bernard Laporte may have thrown the odd teacup at the interval and his team made far too many errors before the break, scoring only a forwards' try when Fabien Pelous was driven over from a lineout after 10 minutes.
But with Gelez kicking effortlessly at goal as the referee Peter Marshall continually penalised the Scots, the lead soon worryingly grew.
The game effectively ended two minutes after half-time when Vincent Clerc cut in from the left wing and gave Xavier Garbajosa the chance to allow the full-back Clement Poitrenaud to go over unopposed in the corner.
Gelez's inspiration then completed the rout. On the hour France surged upfield and Fabien Galthie dug the ball out of a rut before Gelez chipped over the flat defence for the centre Damien Traille to gather the ball and score brilliantly beneath the posts.
With the last play of the game Gelez collected the ball from a ruck in the corner and his cross-kick landed straight in the arms of Aurelien Rougerie to score with a flourish. Magnifique.
"We were back to the real France today" said Laporte. But for Scotland there is only the real creeping fear of a wooden spoon.
FRANCE: Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Rougerie (Montferrand), Garbajosa (Toulouse), Traille (Pau), Clerc (Toulouse; Castaignede, Saracens, 65); Gelez (Agen), Galthie (capt, Stade Francais; Yachvili, Biarritz, 72); Crenca (Agen), Ibanez (Castres; Rue, Agen, 77), Marconnet (Callifano, 64, Pelous Toulouse), Brouzet, (Auradou, 64), Betsen (Biarritz), Magne (Montferrand), Harinordoquy (Pau), Chabal, Bourgoin, 72).
Tries: Pelous, Poitrenaud, Traille, Rougerie, Cons: Gelez 3. Pens: Gelez 4.
SCOTLAND: Metcalfe (Glasgow); Logan (Wasps), Townsend (Borders), Utterson (Borders), Paterson (Edinburgh); Laney (Edinburgh; Craig, Orrell, 59), Redpath (capt, Sale; Blair, Edinburgh, 75); Smith (Northampton), Bulloch (Glasgow), Douglas (Borders; Kerr, Leeds, 60; Douglas, 68), Murray (Edinburgh; White, Glasgow, 52), Grimes (Newcastle), Lesley (Edinburgh), Mower (Newcastle; Petrie, Glasgow, 68), Taylor (Edinburgh).
Pen: Paterson.
Referee: P Marshall (Australia).
