France prove too strong for Scotland

By Mark Stevens
26/2/22

Exeter Chiefs youngster was unable to stop France Under-20s from returning to winning ways as they triumphed 30-17 over their Scottish counterparts at the Dam Health Stadium in Edinburgh in the Six Nations Under-20s Championship.

Winger Jefferson Joseph was sent off for a head on head collision with Robin McClintock after just 13 minutes, but that did not halt France, who scored a series of excellent tries and won in style despite being down a man for over 65 minutes before Jules Coulon was also sent off with ten minutes to go.

Tries from Esteban Capilla, Louis Le Brun, Emilien Gailleton and Connor Sa saw France recover from defeat to Ireland a fortnight ago, while Scotland suffered their third consecutive loss.

Just four minutes after Joseph saw red, it was France not Scotland who scored the first try of the match, in a wonderful flowing move from their own 22.

Theo Ntamack picked the ball up off the back of the scrum and fly-half Emile Dayral got the move going with a step inside.

Moments later, the ball found itself out wide with a ball chipped through, and Capilla picked it up brilliantly to finish in the corner.

Scotland were typically stubborn in defence, making everything difficult for France, but after a Dayral penalty extended the lead further to 11-3 after 27 minutes, France scored their second through Le Brun.

The centre sent impressive second row Samuel M’foudi through a gap with a sublime offload, before eventually finding himself grounding the ball at a stretch to give France a comfortable 18-3 lead.

France resumed the second half with the same intensity as the first and it took them just five minutes to cross for their third try of the evening.

Captain Emilien Gailleton found a way through the Scottish defence and finished off yet another well worked score as France began to flex their muscles.

Scotland threatened a comeback of their own when replacement tighthead prop Callum Norrie found a way over the line with 20 minutes to go, but France did not take long to respond, with Ntamack crossing the line, before his try was disallowed due to a knock-on.

Just three minutes later however, Sa secured the bonus point for France with 13 minutes on the clock, and with Dayral’s conversion, the score was then 30-10 in the away side’s favour.

Coulon saw France’s second red card of the match with ten minutes left for a tackle above the horizontal on Jonty Cope, but despite Scotland’s best efforts, France had built up too much of a lead.

Josh Taylor crossed for a consolation score in the final minute for Scotland, but it came too late in the night.