Six Nations: Nervy France fumble their lines on Valentine's date with Scotland in Paris

14 February 2009

France 22 (6) Scotland 13 (3)

It was a win – and that was the most basic requirement – but France’s stuttering 22-13 victory against Scotland still left as many questions as it provided answers.

The potential brilliance of their flowing attack play was only fleetingly glimpsed and a limited Scotland managed to pose enough problems for Marc Lièvremont to have serious concerns ahead of their crunch home game with Wales in a fortnight’s time.

The sheer volume of unforced handling errors was alarming, especially in a ragged first-half that saw the home side edge into a 6-3 interval lead courtesy of two Lionel Beauxis penalties.

They improved after the break, with Montpellier flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo even going over for his first try in national colours, but the crowd’s obvious displeasure at another stuttering performance will ensure Lièvremont's brow remains furrowed for a while yet.

Both sides initially tried to run the ball but the error-strewn opening forced a rethink as continuity became as rare a commodity as a solvent bank.

Maybe it was because ‘Les Bleus’ were playing in white, or maybe it was the accumulated nerves that inevitably follow a series of hesitant performances, but France clearly lacked the confidence and swagger that we have come to expect – a necessary by-product of the rebuilding process that Lièvremont is undertaking to perform.

But the coach clearly had wise words at the interval and France opened the second-half with a positive vibrancy that was noticeably lacking beforehand. Maxime Medard was only denied by an unlucky bounce, but the Toulouse winger was instrumental again moments later when he neatly offloaded for Ouedraogo to go over for the game’s opening try after 45 minutes. Clement Poitrenaud and Lionel Nallet could also take honourable mentions for their parts in the build up, and when Beauxis followed the conversion with two further penalties it appeared the home side was set to cut free with a 19-6 advantage going into the final quarter.

Lièvremont sent on crowd favourite Sebastien Chabal to confirm his intentions but the Scots had other ideas with Thom Evans’ 68^th-minute score just reward for the continued endeavours.

Paterson’s conversion narrowed the gap to just six points but with the Scots threatening an almighty upset Beauxis stepped up to nail his fifth penalty of the match with eight minutes to go, thus ensuring there would be no Parisian heartbreak this time out for Lièvremont's evolving side.

But the coach was frank in his assessment afterwards, acknowledging there is still much work to be done after another less than convincing performance.

“We are happy in two respects. Firstly, there is a satisfaction that we won. Secondly, France never gave up and continued to fight,” he said.

“But there were a lot of mistakes that can be avoided. We didn’t show our potential and we have to improve in the future. I was expecting to have a good victory and spend a nice Valentine’s Day evening with my wife, but it looks like I will have to spend tonight looking at the video,” he lamented.

“I am disappointed with our precision and there was a multitude of handling, kicking and positional faults. There is a lot of work to do,” added Lièvremont.

But he found support in the shape of full-back Poitrenaud, who admitted that the team was taking time to adjust to the coach’s attacking philosophy.

“In the Bernard Laporte era we didn’t play much but when we won matches nobody could find a fault with it,” he said. “Now we have the ambition to practice ambitious rugby and you have to give us some time.”

The Toulouse star admitted France was currently “a team in construction” but said the fear of losing was holding it back from full development. “I hope we can free ourselves to find the right middle ground between our inefficiency or Croke Park [against Ireland] and the limited play we practised here, even though we won,” he added.

The visit of defending champions Wales is up next and France will have to cut out the errors they made here if they're not to experience the second defeat of this Six Nations campaign.

© Copyright FrenchRugbyClub.com. All rights reserved.