France recorded their second victory in this season’s Under-20s Six Nations Championship with a 29-22 victory over Scotland in an enthralling contest at Netherdale.
After a quiet opening quarter in the Scottish Borders Scotland were the first to get off the mark through Nathan Chamberlain’s early penalty kick.
France did not take long to register their first points of the evening after captain Jordan Joseph benefited from a sumptuous offload by centre Yoram Moefana for an easy run-in to the try line.
Thibault Debaes converted the score, and minutes later, the blow for Scotland was compounded when France’s fly-half slotted over a three-pointer to extend the visitors’ lead.
Scotland immediately responded, however, through Rufus McLean’s lovely finish in the corner, with Chamberlain’s excellent touch-line conversion levelling the scores.
The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued when Toulon’s Erwan Dridi ran a terrific inside line to beat three defenders and cross over. Debaes added the simple extras from in front of the sticks.
But within minutes, Scotland hit back once again when Roan Frostwick found Jacob Henry inside with the centre diving over underneath the posts. Chamberlain promoted the score with his conversion to make it 17-17 at the interval.
France took advantage of their early pressure in the second period through some dynamic work across the field. Debaes’ perfectly weighted cross-field kick was collected by winger Nathanaël Hulleu to dot down in the corner.
The confidence continued to ooze out from France’s youngsters, and Debaes had the opportunity to pull his side eight points ahead but his penalty kick missed.
However, Les Bleus would not be deterred, as they powered back Scotland’s pack on their own feed at the scrum to score with Joshua Brennan scoring the all-important bonus-point try for his side.
Scotland, as they had done all evening, continued to fight and were rewarded when their line-out maul powered over with George Breese credited the score. Replacement Kyle McGhie missed his conversion, keeping the visitors’ lead at seven points.
With their tails up, and France’s second rower Brennan sent to the bin for the remainder of the contest, Scotland pushed on for a fourth try to tie the game, but were unable to convert their pressure into a score.
