{"id":318431,"date":"2026-03-08T00:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318431\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T00:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:46:12","slug":"scotland-throw-open-six-nations-title-race-with-stunning-win-over-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318431\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland throw open Six Nations title race with stunning win over France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours later Italy stunned England<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s match next weekend kicks off several hours after the Ireland-Scotland encounter so Les Bleus will know what they need to do.<\/p>\n

Scotland have never finished higher than third in the Six Nations era and were last crowned kings of European rugby union when they won the last Five Nations in 1999.<\/p>\n

That Scotland have a shot at the title represents a remarkable turnaround for a side who started this Six Nations with a lacklustre loss to Italy in Rome before beating England and edging out Wales.<\/p>\n

Both Scotland coach Gregor Townsend and skipper Sione Tuipulotu had emphasised in the build-up the importance of making France feel \u201cuncomfortable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hosts did just that by opening the scoring through Graham\u2019s fifth-minute try.<\/p>\n

Scotland centre Huw Jones made a break and although Finn Russell fumbled the ball, it went backwards, and the first five-eighths released Graham for a score that meant the wing stood alone as Scotland\u2019s leading try-scorer with 36.<\/p>\n

France levelled the game at 7-7 in the 18th minute.<\/p>\n

Antoine Dupont ripped the ball from Tuipulotu before finding wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who extended his own record by scoring a try in a ninth consecutive Six Nations match.<\/p>\n

Fullback Thomas Ramos added a conversion from out wide.<\/p>\n

Four minutes later, France were ahead when Theo Attissogbe, coming across from the right wing, ran on to Bielle-Biarrey\u2019s grubber kick.<\/p>\n

Scotland responded, George Turner broke from a lineout and passed to Steyn, running a superb line in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

Russell missed the conversion but Scotland regained the lead when, after a series of drives near the French line, prop Pierre Schoeman powered over for a 32nd-minute try.<\/p>\n

Russell landed the conversion to leave Scotland 19-14 ahead at halftime, with France reduced to 14 men after first five-eighths Matthieu Jalibert was sin-binned.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s sense of adventure was rewarded in the 44th minute after the side declined a kickable penalty in favour of an attacking lineout.<\/p>\n

Halfback Ben White, who plays his club rugby in France for Toulon, scored a bonus-point try from a sniping break as France centre Yoram Moefana carelessly turned his back.<\/p>\n

Dupont then threw a loose pass straight to Steyn, who sprinted away to score. Scotland added another try when Graham raced clear and went in between the posts.<\/p>\n

After Dupont\u2019s reckless forward pass behind his own tryline, Tuipulotu put replacement back Tom Jordan in for Scotland\u2019s seventh try in the 63rd minute. Russell kicked his sixth conversion for a 47-14 lead.<\/p>\n

Dupont finished a brilliant length-of-the-field move three minutes later and France grabbed what could prove an important bonus point when Ramos went over six minutes from time.<\/p>\n

Oscar Jegou and Ramos again added two more tries in a breathless finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours later Italy stunned England for the first time. France\u2019s match next weekend kicks off several hours after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[172375,172376,2245,172374,5904,1221,42,148309,1345,17154,43,5493,1523,7798,11063,4739,12825,1361,83329,2563,1865,40,38,41,39,1533,6027,102,108562],"class_list":{"0":"post-318431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-172375","9":"tag-derailed","10":"tag-early","11":"tag-ensured","12":"tag-final","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-holders","16":"tag-home","17":"tag-nations","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-open","20":"tag-over","21":"tag-race","22":"tag-scotland","23":"tag-six","24":"tag-stunning","25":"tag-that","26":"tag-throw","27":"tag-title","28":"tag-today","29":"tag-top-news","30":"tag-top-stories","31":"tag-topnews","32":"tag-topstories","33":"tag-will","34":"tag-win","35":"tag-with","36":"tag-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}