Scotland make France pay for Mohammed Haouas punch and red card - MW

France's hope for a first Grand Slam in a decade has been dashed by its own indiscipline and Scottish performance combining defense humor and offensive invention. A first yellow card for François Cros was followed in the first half by red for Mohamed Haouas and if these two defeats were inevitable failures, they contributed to a strange performance with photos. The final creates three consecutive victories.

Failure to receive even a reward for defeat ties them to England with 13 points at the top of the Six Nations table. They must now rise against Ireland on Saturday evening, while England must await the news of the reorganization of their match against Italy in Rome.

For its part, Scotland will travel to Wales in the hope of retaining at least third position. Their victory over Italy a few weeks ago was not considered extremely significant given the humble nature of the opposition, but it was all the more impressive. It is unlikely that after their defeat against Ireland and England a victory in Cardiff will bring them to the top and even if this high status is temporary it will provide convincing evidence of progress. in fact after a difficult campaign without composer Finn Russell after his failure with head coach Gregor Townsend.

Sean Maitland will be congratulated on his two attempts - one in two halves of time - while Stuart McInally shows a poaching instinct to score later in an unsatisfied team. Adam Hastings added other points to his team with the boot, but the key ingredient to their success was deep defense, the most important element of this campaign and the indomitable drive to win. victory for Stuart Hogg, who is the first time to win as captain.

France, who had to put Peato Mauvaka on the bench after Camille Chat was injured during the warm-up, lost Romain Ntamack to the head early. They were stripped of Cros for 10 minutes for a dangerous tackle on Grant Gilchrist - although Paul Willemse seemed to be the real culprit - then worse than following them almost half the time when Haouas was fired for hitting fist. Jamie Ritchie.

Man on the ground in the first scrum, France was penalized for not having driven in a straight line and Hastings opened the scoring with a simple effort of 25 meters. The strike added a new attempt, longer than the middle of the half, but a moment of genius from Antoine Dupont gave the visitors a lead with a perfectly weighted kick recovered by Damian Penaud. in the right corner. Mathieu Jalibert, to replace Ntamack, is converted from the touchline.

Scotland attempted an immediate counterattack, but their momentum was stopped when a fight involving several players on each side broke out near the French border. Haouas' offense was the most egregious act - at least after repeated assessments of the incident - and he was fired for hanging Ritchie.

Another penalty before the posts created three more points for Hastings and Scotland and in the last game of the half, Maitland added another try. Gilchrist opened when the defense was extended to the breaking point, Hogg made the attack, then Sam Johnson placed the winger in the right corner. Hastings missed the change, but a 14-7 lead in the first half against 14 was a great place for the home team.

It became 21-7 five minutes after the second half with Maitland touched again and converted Hastings. Hogg was the instigator this time, breaking the midfielder after Hamish Watson turned to a French attack and some tricky passes involving Chris Harris and Ali Price ended up with Johnson once again for L'ailier including he needs to score a goal.

The arrival of the rain made handling more complicated and another French attack was stopped in a short time. A Jalibert penalty took them in two numbers and quickly rekindled their opportunity to recover late until McInally, off the bench, scored. The hooker launched very badly, but the ball rebounded on a French lock, allowing it to gather and run clearly at 20 meters. Hastings transformed and on October 28, France realized that the match was over.

Their captain, Charles Ollivon, got a score back five minutes from time, with Jalibert converting. Another try would have produced a losing bonus point and give France the edge going into the final round of fixtures, but it was Scotland who came closer to scoring in the dying moments of the match.

MW