Certainly, Scotland is not Italy, far from it. But it does not have an inexhaustible reservoir of players either. However, the days preceding the Scotland-France meeting saw the New Caledonian contingent melt like snow in the sun. After the pillar Rory Sutherland and the second line, Jonny Gray, among other injured executives, it is the third line Hamish Watson, another essential cog who, tested positive for Covid, was to leave the group on D-1. Too much was too much, against a French team in total confidence, because the only nation still undefeated at the end of the second day, in a Six Nations Tournament started in the paradoxically uncomfortable role of big favorite.
Dupont, juvenile innkeeper
A team tumbling onto the lawn of Murrayfield with legitimate desires for revenge, after two “aberrant” defeats which, in 2020 and 2021, had cast a shadow of doubt on the ability of a group on the rise not to pitch in the swell. Which was more than the case, Saturday afternoon, in a stadium where the Flower of Scotland – like the Marseillaise – was budding like a beautiful resurrection after all these matches played under glass because of the pandemic.
At 36-17, therefore, mass was said. It had been eight years since France had left Edinburgh with their heads held high. However, the contract was almost perfectly fulfilled with six tries scored, captains (in a starting XV with an average age of only 25!) capable of making the difference at any time (from the scrum half and captain, Antoine Dupont, whose monstrous revival will allow the Blues to race in the lead from the 8th minute, to the “old”, Gaël Fickou, in the oven and at the mill) and a united feeling of almost unshakable serenity, if not during this quarter of end of the first half, when Scotland began to dream aloud of a hold-up – until this Stuart Hogg, so often savior of the XV of the Thistle, does not harvest a test of which, has a posteriori, it will be considered that it would only have delayed the deadline a little.
“A lot of satisfaction”
Heckled during the first act, but sovereign during the second, where local abnegation invariably crashed against the tricolor wall, France therefore did what was expected of it. Better. “The defense feeds the attack, as the attack feeds the defense and we were very good in the transitions”, analyzed the coach, Fabien Galthié, at the microphone of France 2, insisting on the desire to savor the present moment. Echoing this, Antoine Dupont did not skimp, believing that there was “a lot of satisfaction to be drawn from this match”both at the level of “state of mind” only “emotions”. Until ignoring barrier gestures, going to strike a pose, arm in arm, after the meeting, with supporters in heaven…
“We think we will once again become a major nation in world rugby, because we will win matches, titles quickly”, predicted Galthié, at the end of 2019, when he took control of a French team that had been suffering for ten years – the last European title dating back to 2010. Second in the 2020 and 2021 editions, the tricolors could not then than chomping at the bit. But, a year and a half before the World Cup in France, they no longer have too much room for error if we are to believe the roadmap – and the related potential. In accordance with sporting logic, winning the 2022 Tournament would be good. With a Grand Slam (synonymous with flawless) it would be better. To do this, it will be necessary to overcome two final dams, against Wales, on March 11 in Cardiff, then against England, on March 19, in prime time at the Stade de France. Teams in full doubt, who clashed on Saturday (victory at Twickenham for England 23-19), just after Scotland-France, offering, unlike the Murrayfield show, an often approximate and needy spectacle, while just redeemed by an undecided outcome.