France took the first step towards a grand slam yesterday but it was not with the confident stride of England. Instead they stumbled to victory against a dogged Scotland who with a little more luck and a little more inspiration could have repeated their victory in Paris two years earlier.
The game was settled two minutes after the break by a memorable Philippe Bernat-Salles try that shone like a beacon in the gloom at St Denis but neither England, nor indeed Ireland who France meet in Dublin on Saturday week, will be quaking in their boots at a visit from France. Their professorial coach Bernard Laporte still has some tinkering to do to create a convincing formula.
Scotland can claim the game was ill-starred from the fourth minute because it was then that Gregor Townsend limped from the field with an injured right knee after driving into a phalanx of French defenders. The Scottish playmaker looked distraught and will be doubtful for the visit of Wales next week.
Townsend's replacement Duncan Hodge gave an assured display but the Edinburgh Reiver does not have Townsend's ability to prise open modern international defences. Without a dash of the unpredictable, Scotland - for all their forwards' creditable hard work - rarely looked like hauling themselves back into the match after Bernat-Salles' try.
As it was, Scotland had to settle for two first-half penalties from Kenny Logan and with the teams locked at 6-6 at the interval, Christophe Lamaison converting two penalties for France, the home side were booed from the pitch.
In the first half France were woeful. There was no snap in their play, they made countless handling errors and sloppy kicks and their much-vaunted scrum struggled against the livelier Scottish forwards. Whether it was something in the half-time citrons or more likely the sharper tongue of Laporte, France came out transformed after the break and for a few minutes at least bore a resemblance to the thrilling teams of the late 90s.
Just after the interval they surprised Scotland with a counter-attack down their left flank. When the move broke down, Fabien Galthie dug the ball out of a ruck and Lamaison and Franck Comba created the midfield space for Bernat-Salles to elude Logan on the outside and cut inside Chris Paterson and Stuart Grimes for the try, which Lamaison converted.
Bernat-Salles celebrated with his familiar pose of outstretched arms. He may have thought justice had been done, for eight minutes before half-time Richard Dourthe had given Bernat-Salles the chance to round Paterson in a dash to the opposite corner. But Logan smothered the wing and held him up before he could ground the ball. The video referee, Ireland's Brian Stirling, ruled that Bernat-Salles had not scored. It was a correct decision.
Bernat-Salles was in the thick of the action and a throat-high tackle from the Scotland flanker Martin Leslie floored him. Leslie was sent to the sin-bin, significantly it turned out, for France were to capitalise against the 14 men shortly after. Apart for Lamaison's last-minute penalty, that was the end of scoring.
For Scotland, who also lost their lineout lighthouse Richard Metcalfe in the first half with a dislocated finger, the pluses were the return of John Leslie, who gave composure to their midfield, of the performance of their back row who were sharper and quicker than their counterparts, and the steeliness of their defence.
But Topwnsend, the man who might have changed the course of the game, had forlornly to sit out 76 minutes of it. "There's huge disappointment in the dressing room," said McGeechan. His captain Andy Nicol lamented: "You don't get many opportunities to win over here and that has to go down as an opportunity lost."
France: Garbajosa (Toulouse); Bernat-Salles (Biarritz), Comba (Stade Francais), Dourthe (Beziers), Bory (Montferrand); Lamaison (Agen), Galthie (Colomiers); Marconnet (Stade Francais), Ibanez (Castres), De Villiers (Stade Francais), Auradou (Stade Francais), Pelous (Toulouse, capt), Moni (Stade Francais), Magne (Montferrand), Juillet (Stade Francais). Replacements: Califano (Toulouse) for Marconnet (51 mins), Benazzi (Agen) for Auradou (51), Betsen (Biarritz) for Moni (51), Merceron (Montferrand) for Dourthe (70).
Scotland: Paterson (Edinburgh Reivers); C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers), McLaren (Glasgow Caledonians, J Leslie (Northampton), Logan (Wasps); Townsend (Castres), Nicol (Glasgow Caledonians) capt; Smith (Brive), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), Stewart (Northampton); S Murray (Saracens), Metcalfe (Edinburgh Reivers), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), Pountney (Northampton), Petrie (Glasgow Caledonians. Replacements: Hodge (Edinburgh) for Townsend (4 mins)), Grimes (Newcastle) for Metcalfe (22), McIllwham (Glasgow) for Stewart (53), Redpath (Sale) for Nicol (64); A Bulloch (Glasgow) for McLaren (65), Russell (Saracens) for G Bulloch (67), White (Glasgow) for Petrie (74).
Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).
