Six Nations Championship: Scotland 10; France 22 The Auld Alliance have produced some stirring matches but Murrayfield 1996 or Paris 1999 this was not. The isturbing thing for Scotland is that France completed four-fifths of their grand slam and their third successive win in Edinburgh without really scaling great heights.
More worrying in the longer term for Ian McGeechan's side is the Six Nations has now developed into a two-tier competition with France, England and Ireland gunning for grand slams and triple crowns and Scotland, Wales and Italy scrapping for victories.
There were consolations for the Scots. This was a more spirited display than their capitulation in Dublin and Bryan Redpath led them by example with a yapping, sniping display at the heels of the scrum. And in the last quarter they raised their game without really suggesting they could turn territorial advantage into an astonishing victory.
But McGeechan will envy Bernard Laporte for having a young team that wins games but is capable of big improvements. Only in their victory over England have the French clicked through all their gears. "We have stacks of potential and some of them will be great players. Grand slams, well, they are the stuff of textbooks but we are just enjoying life," said France's coach.
Laporte's team is personified by the Montferrand fly-half Gerald Merceron. No glamour boy, the balding playmaker will never stir the blood but he did nothing wrong on Saturday, kicking astutely, making Tony Marsh's tries and expertly marshalling his backline.
Laporte has managed, with no small help from the English defensive coach Dave Ellis, to combine classic French back play with more discipline than the Foreign Legion. France, despite being under pressure in that last quarter, conceded only six penalties all match. With an indulgent referee, Alain Rolland, allowing the French defence to operate on the edge and over the edge of the offside line, Merceron's opposite number Gregor Townsend rarely had room to prise an opening.
The game was over after the first four minutes of the second half when Marsh and his captain Fabien Galthie scored two tries on the counter-attack.
First Nicolas Brusque hoisted an up-and-under into the corner and the French won the ensuing ruck for Merceron to dig the ball out and Damien Traille and forwards Raphael Ibanez and Jean-Jacques Crenca to work Marsh over in the left-hand corner. Two minutes later Galthie picked the ball out of a ruck, brushed aside Gordon Bulloch and ran 40 metres down the other flank to score.
Brendan Laney was beaten for speed rather too comfortably. The New Zealander is an asset to Scotland for his place-kicking and footballing nous and he later cancelled out the score with a strong diagonal run to set up a ruck from which Redpath burrowed over, but like much of the Scottish backline he lacked acceleration.
In the first half Laney was exposed again by French pace. At the end of the first quarter the Scots won a scrum but the ball was turned over and Galthie and Merceron gave Traille the chance to break and off-load to Marsh who motored between Laney and Glenn Metcalfe to run in a try from the home 22. It is ironic, then, that after the outcry about Laney being fast-tracked into the Scottish side last autumn, the Auckland-born Marsh should be adding an All Black hue to the Tricolores.
And while Laporte has a well of talent at his disposal, McGeechan's resources are not exactly Loch Ness deep. The visit to Wales next week may be a chance to replace players who have been found wanting. Matt Stewart struggled at loose-head and the young Edinburgh giant Craig Smith could be a better long-term prospect, while Jon Petrie, a first-half blood replacement, deserves a start as Simon Taylor is not exactly tearing up trees.
"It was a hard match. The players are very, very tired and because there were so many counterattacks, there were a lot of errors," said Laporte, too polite to add that most of them were by the Scots. And, as La Marseillaise says: "Le jour de gloire est arrive" - probably on Saturday week in Paris.
nGuardian Service
SCOTLAND: Laney; Metcalfe, McLaren (Logan, 78mins), J Leslie, Paterson; Townsend, Redpath (capt); Smith, Bulloch (Russell, 75), Stewart (Graham, Newcastle, 62), Murray (Grimes, 65), White, M Leslie, Pountney, Taylor (Edinburgh). Try: Redpath. Con: Laney. Pen: Laney.
FRANCE: Brusque (Marlu, 51); Rougerie, Marsh, Traille, Bory; Merceron, Galthie (capt); Crenca, Ibanez, Poux ( Marconnet, 65 ), Pelous (Privat, 68), Brouzet, Betsen (Martin, 78), Magne , Harinordoquy (Pau). Tries: Marsh 2, Galthie. Cons: Merceron 2. Pen: Merceron.
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).
