Rugby – Scotland v France, RBS Women’s 6 Nations

Two penalty tries for France in their win at Broadwood

France wiped out the Scottish scrum twice in a row to score two of their four tries in Friday night’s Women’s 6 Nations match at Broadwood in Cumbernauld. Once again, Scotland put up stiff resistance to a superior side, but, once again, they came away with defeat.

The opening 35 minutes of the match were fairly even, with France having territorial advantage, but Scotland made a few breaks which worried the visitors’ defence, but they didn’t really threaten the whitewash. France, for their part, managed to get a bit closer in, but like their opponents, couldn’t score. They did get close on one occasion, but the defence drove the attacking players out near the corner flag to keep the scores level at 0-0.

It was this incident that lead to the first try. The referee called for TMO assistance to determine the outcome and, although it was ‘no try’, France were awarded a scrum on the five metre line. This scrum fell apart and Scotland were penalised by the referee and the second scrum set up. The French put in a huge push and had the Scots all over the place, giving the referee no option but to go under the posts for a penalty try. In the meantime, the French subs had got involved with the celebrations and the frustrated Scots went fighting. The mêlée was soon sorted, but with wing. Laura Delas, knocking over the conversion, it was 7-0 to France, which was the score taken into the break.

Scotland had the better of the first 10 minutes, or so, of the second half with Sarah Law and Chloe Rollie both kicking in behind the French defence, but as the 50 minute mark rolled over, Scotland were once more under the French cosh on their own line. A penalty and yellow card gave the visitors another five metre scrum, but, this time around, the referee marched under the posts following the first collapse. Delas converted and, with 52 minutes played, it was 14-0.

Scotland then showed a bit of promise and, in a ten minute period, threatened the French line a couple of times. They won a penalty close in and set up a driving maul from the lineout, with Lana Skeldon in charge of the ball. The French were penalised for taking the maul down and Scotland went for a five metre scrum. However, this attack came to naught as a loss of footing by one of the centres gave France a bit of a breather.

As the match rolled over the 15 to go mark, the visitors were once again, banging on the door of the Scottish try line. Some fierce tackling held them out for a while, but, eventually pressure told and the pack force the ball over the line for another TMO decision, which went in their favour. The conversion was missed, but, with 12 minutes left, it was 19-0 to France.

As full time approached, the French backs went on the hunt for a try and, on 78 minutes, they were rewarded as a fine passing move outflanked the majority of the home defence and Julie Duval went over in the corner for the fourth, and unconverted, try to take the final score to 24-0 to France.

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.