Scotland broke France’s aura this Saturday in Edinburgh in one of the best games the Six Nations has ever known – a feast of 90 points and 13 tries – but their feat ended up being incomplete because it was not enough to dislodge the defending champion from the lead. , the Blues They were surpassed on all four sides in a match that they lost by 33, an unprecedented loss for a team that aspires to world hegemony, but limited the damage for an acceptable defeat (50-40) that keeps them in the lead by achieving the offensive bonus point of the four trials and a general average much higher than that of their rivals. Both arrive, therefore, tied on points to the last day of next Saturday. France, which depends on itself, receives England at 9:00 p.m. and Scotland, which has not won since 1999, will visit Ireland at 3:10 p.m., which also has options. The tournament that belonged almost by decree to the Gauls will have a three-way outcome.
The hunger with which Scotland emerged soon paid off. The first entry into the French field, with a great cadence of passes, ended in the hands of Finn Russell, who turned his soft hands into a perfect decoy for the defender to go after him and open the door. The opener was agile to pick up the oval and assist the race of Darcy Graham, who ran to meet him as if he had already seen the film to rehearse. France reacted with territorial dominance, but without submission to an orderly rival that folded, but did not break.
Even in a fateful story, the XV del Gallo found three minutes of distraction. To your liking, in the anarchy of the countercoup. , with a defensive action, tearing the ball from Tuipulotu’s hands in the tackle. His defense did not expect it, without the numbers to block the attack on the left by Louis Bielle-Biarrey, the top scorer who scored his ninth consecutive game with a try. The next time, the scorer became an assistant, with a quick bounce centimeters from the lime that found the other wing, Théo Attissogbé. When both charge on the same flank, fire is inevitable. From 7-0 to 7-14 in just three minutes.
At the height of his maturity, he was aware that his dynamic impacts were unraveling a disorganized defense that chained one foul after another as it retreated. So it didn’t take long for them to regain the helm. First, in a brilliant action by Turner, a heeler in charge of pushing who drove the ball as if it were a light scrum-half to assist the cross that Kyle Steyn made towards the left corner. The fouls continued and the Caledonians took advantage of the umpteenth offside to strike with the giant Pierre Schoeman: third try, yellow for Jalibert for repetition and home advantage at halftime (19-14).
France did not regain order in the locker room and Scotland consolidated its dominance with the lead: facing a powerless rival in positional play, the rule was not to make mistakes that would take the game out of the predictable. The Gauls continued to chain fouls and the scrum-half, Ben White, took advantage of the referee’s advantage to take a risk without consequences and take the ball instead of giving it to the forwards for a try that put his team in the lead of the tournament.
that he had to force to look for the cracks that his forwards could not find. In those, he gave a precarious horizontal pass that Steyn intercepted to score his second try. The French were in their basement when the referee warned them again that if they continued making fouls he would send another soldier to the bench for ten minutes. Perhaps that is why they allowed the Scottish platform to advance without illegally sinking it and ended up paying for the inferiority on the opposite side with Graham’s second try, which was still standing because the Gauls, usually merciless in tackling, arrived late. A bleeding that Dupont himself aggravated with hand errors in his most compromised area that not even he himself could amend, unable to tackle Will Jordan’s attack under the sticks. It was the seventh Scottish try for an insulting score of 47-14.
With all the disaster, there was one escape for France: the bonus point of scoring four tries. A danger that Scotland, happy in its feast, did not fully contemplate, but its title chances depended on it. With such an advantage, the locals should not have been naked in a counterattack that they set up between Jalibert, Attissogbé and Dupont, tackled while posing on the line. So, despite winning by 26, the Caledonians’ lead hung by a try. And they couldn’t get out of their field. Too much talent to have at the door of the house, even if he had been dozing all afternoon. In that inertia, the versatile Thomas Ramos entered between the forwards and scored the relief try. It did not help the Scottish concentration, which allowed another score by Oscar Jégou on a quick serve and, with the time already expired, another by Ramos in the open field. There will be no Grand Slam, the prize for winning all the matches, but France maintains the lead by a wide point difference of +79 compared to the Scottish +21. Ireland, with two points less, would need to win and a French stumble.
