Scotland v France 6 nations Championship Saturday 26th February 2022

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Scotland v France
6 Nations Championship

Saturday 26th February 2022
BT Murrayfield Stadium
Edinburgh

KO 14.15


Well the Auld Alliance trophy is up for stake between Scotland and France.

France who are probably everybodies favourites for the championship now +/- a Grand Slam to boot but they have found Scotland a hard nut to crack over the past few years and it has likely cost them 2 championshipos. They won't be taking us lightly this time, nor will they probably throw the game a way with a silly punch or crazy run from their own line with the clock dead.

They will be tough to beat though, all the more so as they will be taking this game very seriously.

As for Scotland, well how different this game might have been had we played well and beaten Wales. The optimism around Scotland following the first game against England has evaporated. Add to that we have now got an injury list that will test our now improved depth. However we look at it though, Ritchie, JG, Sutherland and Cummings will be missed.

Still Scotland are back were they are happiest, underdogs with no-one giving them much of a chance. We will surely play better than we did against wales, we will need to!

I am thinking about a side something like this:

1. Schoeman
2. McInally
3. Fagerson Z
4. Gilchrist
5. Skinner
6. Bradbury
7. Watson
8. Fagerson M (if fit) - Baylis if not
9. Price
10. Russell
11. DVDM
12. Redpath
13. Harris
14. Graham
15. Hogg

Bench

Keeble
Turner
Nel
Hodgson
Darge
White
Kinghorn
Tuipolotu

Agree BigGee, but it is annoying given how good they are elsewhere.

Can Scotland come back out and attack as they have been doing? They have shown that the French defence is not invincible and should take confidence from that.

majesticimperialman wrote:Why did he throw that looping pass?

Good question - he had 3 players outside him with only 1 defender in front ... put it through the hands and they score ...

France are playing incredible in attack but look ropey in defence at times. Scotland just need to attack and force the penalties. The ref is switched on to their sneaky line out ploy now so they can hopefully prevent those cheap penalties in the 2nd half.

Rory Darge! What a game he is having, 3 turnovers and a try would be an incredible result for a full 80 minutes let alone one half. Watson has competition.

The try started by Dupont has to be a contender for try of the tournament. It looked like a very good kick by Scotland initially but he slipped the tackle and found a gap and boom, try time. Fantastic half of rugby and a deserved lead by France.

Haining poor pass to VDM, Harris/Hogg error. That was potentially 10 points at least left out there. Hopefully Scotland can be more accurate in the second half. France will surely get the BP though.

He had two. And one was out loosehead prop

But it still didn’t need looped like that.

Mark Bennett on for Harris, who must be injured I would have thought

Chris Harris too embarrassed to come back out?

Abysmal from Price.

Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Get Price off now! That was horrendous by him

tigertattie wrote:He had two. And one was out loosehead prop

But it still didn’t need looped like that.

I thought 3 but maybe one was more behind - but as you say wrong option taken unfortunately ...

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Never interfereing though to be fair. Both the ball carrier and then Price tried to make it look like they were and Scotland paid the price.

Scotland trying to play now, but are getting picked off

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Never interfereing though to be fair. Both the ball carrier and then Price tried to make it look like they were and Scotland paid the price.

I thought he got in Price's way by raising his body off the ground as he tried to pass left initially and forced him to keep hold of the ball and eventually get caught with it ...

Time to get Zander off now, the stupid pens are coming

Hands completely flat on the ground before that last pen ...

Ref has been ropey but our execution as been woeful

Why is Fagerson such a liability

Does Zander Fagerson have difficulty with the definition of "side"? Second game he has clearly entered the maul at he side right in front of the referee.

tigertattie wrote:Ref has been ropey but our execution as been woeful

True - but he appears to be only refereeing one side now ...

His knee was on the ground?!?

Heaf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Never interfereing though to be fair. Both the ball carrier and then Price tried to make it look like they were and Scotland paid the price.

I thought he got in Price's way by raising his body off the ground as he tried to pass left initially and forced him to keep hold of the ball and eventually get caught with it ...

Price was never looking to pass though. Was just trying to get Woki to get in the way for the pen. Got what he deserved.

Clearly off his feet there ...

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Never interfereing though to be fair. Both the ball carrier and then Price tried to make it look like they were and Scotland paid the price.

I thought he got in Price's way by raising his body off the ground as he tried to pass left initially and forced him to keep hold of the ball and eventually get caught with it ...

Price was never looking to pass though. Was just trying to get Woki to get in the way for the pen. Got what he deserved.

Or the other view - Woki was deliberately lolling around too long on the wrong side - most other refs would have pinged him and told him to get away quicker ...

All going France's way but they're playing very well

Well that's that then ...

Heaf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:Well that's the game surely, every bounce going for France today

Lucky bounce and I thought also maybe France a bit lucky not to get pinged for laying around too long on the wrong side of the previous ruck ...

Never interfereing though to be fair. Both the ball carrier and then Price tried to make it look like they were and Scotland paid the price.

I thought he got in Price's way by raising his body off the ground as he tried to pass left initially and forced him to keep hold of the ball and eventually get caught with it ...

Price was never looking to pass though. Was just trying to get Woki to get in the way for the pen. Got what he deserved.

Or the other view - Woki was deliberately lolling around too long on the wrong side - most other refs would have pinged him and told him to get away quicker ...

Yeah but he wasn't in the way at all. It would have been harsh to ping him.

Great game management from the Scottish coaches... What the heck are they doing!?

I'm still not sure - I thought he raised his body off the ground just as Price was about to pass - could be wrong though without seeing a replay

Kinghorn just looks so laboured at FH, the French are reading him so easily

The way the French substitute front row attack the breakdown is absolutely ferocious. Feels more than a bit reminiscent of the impact the Boks front row replacements often have.

Looked like it was going to be a typical case of “what if?” for Scotland after Hoggs knock on and that fourth try, but France have just been too good. Solid going forward but even more lethal on the counter. You’d have to fancy them against anyone on their current form.

Don't we care about territory anymore?

What the hell was that pass!?!

Scotland's structure has completely fallen apart in this half. No shame in losing to France - they're the best in the NH, perhaps the world, and a GS looks likely.

This is going to be a cricket score. France should be able to get a half century

Such a shame. France are the real deal, no question. But three plays turned the match: The French tries right before and after the half as well as that try that was missed. And no one is probably hurting about it more than Hogg.

Darge saves the day again... 4 turnovers from him today

bsando wrote:Darge saves the day again... 4 turnovers from him today

Our best player on the day, but we’ve been second best at everything.

Well to little to late, but good to see what Kinghorn can do in some space

Lovely from Kinghorn there. Feels somewhat ironic that he did it after basically receiving the ball at fullback.

Those French fatties have some power running at their disposal. Very impressive

Great performance from France

On that performance, probably the best team in the world atm

Joy to watch. Well done France.

king_carlos wrote:Lovely from Kinghorn there. Feels somewhat ironic that he did it after basically receiving the ball at fullback.

He is not a FH that's for sure, but arguably better than Hogg at FB atm!

My local club were in a cup semi final today. Bidson was playing. I decided to stay at home.
Bigson messaged to say "Guess who's playing in the final?"
Guess I watched the wrong game.

Awesome performance from France, they look the real deal. Big congrats to them and their fans, they'll be incredibly hard to beat now.

End of another 6N for Scotland. Injuries have sadly hit us, but to be honest I think the coaches have made a lot of big errors in selection and tactics. Renewed criticism of Townsend will coming even if we thump Italy in two weeks time. We're looking a lot softer than we did last season in the 6N and the defence isn't as good as it once was when Tandy came in.

France deserve all the credit today though, they were excellent!

I would not object to Hogg, Price and Russell sitting out the next game, they are just not producing the goods atm, which as Senior players we need for them.

None of them played well today, which was a shamem, as others in the Scotland side did and gave 100%

France looking hard to stop at the moment.

They put Scotland to the sword and at home. I actually thought it would have been a tighter game than it was.

This is why I shouldn’t watch Scotland games - it just ends up being depressing. Why couldn’t we look after that ball? It was killing us.