England’s hopes of Six Nations glory ended at the Stade de France, with Scotland unable to do them a favour – thanks in part to a refereeing decision which sparked plenty of debate.
Steve Borthwick’s team held up their part of the bargain on Saturday afternoon, cruising to a huge 68-14 victory over Wales in Cardiff. That meant France needed a win of their own to claim the title, with Scotland standing in their way.
The pivotal moment came midway through the first half as Peato Mauvaka threw himself head-first at Scotland’s Ben White, but the France star was shown a yellow card rather than a red. France eventually built up a healthy cushion, even wrapping up a bonus point victory with a final score of 35-16, but it could have been very different had they played an hour with 14 against 15.
Former Scotland star Jim Hamilton, on ITV’s coverage, believed the yellow would “100 percent” be upgraded. It wasn’t to be, though, and Mauvaka eventually returned to give France their full complement of players.
An early penalty from Thomas Ramos settled some nerves for Les Bleus, who were given a golden opportunity to add to their lead when Jamie Ritchie was sin-binned. They took full advantage as Yoram Moefana broke free to score a try, with Ramos making no mistake with the conversion.
If they thought that had put them out of sight, though, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Scotland took advantage during Mauvaka’s time in the sin bin, with a Finn Russell penalty getting them on the board and – after another Ramos penalty – Darcy Graham’s try brought the Scots right back into it.
After another France yellow, this time for Jean-Baptiste Gros, Scotland were inches away from a half-time lead. Russell and Ramos exchanged penalties before another Graham try looked to have made it 18-16, but it emerged that Blair Kinghorn had been pushed into touch during the build-up.
“You can’t fly across the ground and headbutt someone. We do not want to see that in our sport,” former Scotland international Johnnie Beattie said in the ITV studio. “Ramos starts the entire thing, and Mauvaka lunging at someone head first, he is very lucky that hasn’t been upgraded to a red card.”
Just three minutes after the restart, France had stretched the gap back up to 10 points. Louis Bille-Biarrey went over after fine work from Damian Penaud, with Ramos nailing the conversion.
Scotland briefly reduced the gap to sevem, but when Ramos scored and converted a try of his own shortly before the hour mark, it was all but over. Moefana’s second try of the day followed less than five minutes later, and it was game over.
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