France kept their Grand Slam aspirations alive with a hard fought 22-10 victory over a determined Scotland at Murrayfield this evening. Victory over Ireland in Paris in two weeks time will give the French the Six Nations trophy they richly deserve following their stunning win over England a fortnight ago. And although the visitors failed to recreate the same fluidity, subtlety of movement and strength in defence against the Scots, the result was never in doubt.
Two tries in four minutes at the start of the second period effectively sealed a French win, with captain Fabian Galthie again in inspired mood, but it was Scotland who opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Brendan Laney converted a simple penalty. France struck for the opening try when New Zealander Tony Marsh profited from an amazing blunder by Simon Taylor at the scrum inside his own half, and Galthie found Damien Traille, who sent his centre partner into open space with only Laney to beat.
Four minutes after the interval Marsh collected his second touchdown, strolling over from Jean-Jaques Crenca's pass after Scotland's defences had been stretched trying to chase down Gerald Merceron's kick. Two minutes later Galthie spotted a gap down the blindside of a ruck, sped round and then left Laney for dead down the right wing to leave the home side ruing several missed opportunities.
After his defensive disasters, Laney owed Scotland something in attack and provided it with a sidestepping run deep into French territory which ended just short but saw Bryan Redpath nudge the ball an inch forward to claim the try. Laney's conversion threatened a big comeback, especially as France had completely lost their shape and were throwing ambitious passes around with no respect for the scoreline, but try as they might, Scotland failed to find another score and France now need a victory over Ireland to claim the Grand Slam.
Filed by Shane Murray
