A late Thomas Ramos penalty earned France a hardfought 30-27 win over Scotland in an entertaining Summer Nations Series clash in Saint-Etienne.
Les Bleus had led by 17 points after a blitz at the start of the second half, only for the Scots to fight back and draw level.
However a scrum penalty gave Ramos the chance to put France back in front with two minutes to go, and from there they were able to hold out to avenge last week’s defeat at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
Kyle Steyn had given Scotland the perfect start with a try after four minutes, and his score eight minutes from time levelled matters.
In between France looked to have seized control as Romain Ntamack, in the first half, and Damian Penaud and Charles Ollivon, at the start of the second, all crossed.
But Duhan van der Merwe and Rory Darge brought the visitors back into it, with Steyn’s second eventually to no avail thanks to Ramos’ late kick.
Scotland have made a habit of starting matches slowly – including a week ago in Edinburgh – but it was not the case here.
An early cross-kick from Finn Russell caught out Thomas Ramos as Duhan van der Merwe almost got away. France scrambled back but strayed offside, with Scotland turning down three points to go to the corner.
It proved the right decision as they forced advantage through their maul before spreading it to the backs where Blair Kinghorn put Kyle Steyn over in the right corner. Russell converted from the touchline and Scotland were 7-0 to the good after four minutes.
France responded by winning a turnover penalty from the restart through Julien Marchand, Ramos obliging with the three points.
But when Grégory Alldritt was caught kicking the ball in a ruck, that was swiftly cancelled out by Russell.
As the half wore on, France started to gain territory, forcing a succession of infringements – the last from Darge which allowed Ramos to knock over another three.
Scotland were on a final warning, and when Ali Price tackled Antoine Dupont early as he took a quick tap, he was shown yellow.
With an extra man, France capitalised from a scrum in the 22. Using the extra space, Dupont drew in the first defender before a pass out of the back put half-back partner Ntamack into space to ghost over.
Ramos again converted but despite more pressure late in the half, France could not add to their lead, settling for a 13-10 advantage at the break.
If Scotland started the first half well, it was France who did likewise in the second. A dropped ball from Pierre Schoeman handed France possession just outside the 22. From there, Scotland were able to reset their defence, but Dupont kept probing off rucks and offloads from his forwards. Eventually the gap opened up and the lethal Penaud burst through. Ramos converted and France were quickly 20-10 ahead.
And very quickly, that lead was out to 17 points. From a quick lineout, Dupont spotted some space and threaded the ball back to his full-back Ramos. He put on the afterburners to sprint down the left touchline. Dupont was on the shoulder but Ramos instead passed to Ollivon, who showed his pace to coast over. With the conversion, France moved to 27-10 clear.
At that point, France looked to be in the ascendancy, but Scotland’s fitness was clearly better in sweltering conditions.
They took advantage of that extra fitness to get back into it when Duhan van der Merwe got over on the left after a break from Huw Jones who was hauled down just short of the line.
And as France had to reshuffle their backline with Ntamack and Jonathan Danty limping off, Scotland struck again, this time through Darge, with Russell’s conversion making it 27-22.
With 12 minutes left, the comeback was on again, although France almost responded immediately through the returning Gabin Villière, tackled brilliantly by Ollie Smith as he looked set to burst over.
Instead, Steyn was fastest onto a clever grubber down the right from George Horne, with Russell unable to convert from the touchline to give Scotland the lead.
And in the end, they missed out on the draw as well as France were rewarded for their power in the scrum with a late penalty in front of the posts that Ramos converted.
