Women’s Six Nations: Scotland 13-13 France

In what can only be described as a shocking result, Scotland drew 13-13 with France in a wet and windy Scotstoun Stadium, ending all hope Les Bleus had at winning the 2020 Grand Slam.

The game got off to a rocky start with Lisa Thompson’s starting kick going dead, handing France the first scrum of the game. The visitors maintained this possession, showing off the strength of their pack and their organised style of play, culminating in an early try from Safi N’Diaye, with Jessy Tremouliere unable to convert. The hosts countered with a penalty from Helen Nelson in the 11^th minute to bring the score to 5-3.

Both sides began to show the effect of the long break between international matches, with France making handling errors uncharacteristic of the 2018 champions and Scotland showing early signs of discipline issues around the breakdown – conceding seven penalties by the 26^th minute, with their lack of discipline eventually rewarding the French a penalty from Tremouliere’s boot to cancel out Nelson’s.

Nonetheless, the hosts looked dangerous with ball in hand, their set pieces and moves being sharp and quick and few handling errors.

The French continued to make unexpected errors with winger Marine Menager and half-back Pauline Bourdon each knocking on several times.

The first half saw Scotland with the lion’s share of possession but struggling to convert this to points, or even move out of the middle third of the pitch. Line breaks from Hannah Smith and Chloe Rollie made gains for the hosts but the French defence remained unbreakable and despite numerous 3-on-2s Smith seemed to struggle with the timing of her passes.

The 45^th minute had Agathe Sochat elbow her way over the line in Les Blues’ seventh lineout try of the tournament, bringing the visitors ten points ahead of their hosts.

Scotland were able to capitalise on this added pressure for Nelson to find the posts once again

With 23 minutes to go, Annick Hayraud’s side was down to 14 players after Lenaig Corson left the field with an injury, the French having used all their subs and therefore unable to field any starters. Scotland were able to capitalise on this added pressure for Nelson to find the posts once again, despite the last-minute change of heart to not kick, only to be informed by referee Sara Cox that once someone begins to run the tee on, the side must go for posts.

Just minutes later, Nelson had the chance to put more points on the board after Audrey Abadie fails to roll away, but is just short.

Scotland finally put their overlap to use with an incredible show of ball recycling between Rollie, Nelson, Megan Gaffney and Jade Konkel before debutant Rachel Shankland outpaced the French line to dot down in the corner with Nelson converting from the touch line to bring the teams to 13-13.

The match was an historic one, with the two sides not having drawn before, and Scotland not beating the French since 2010. While many felt that Sunday’s result would be a foregone conclusion, Bryan Easson’s side shocked all and has shown the world how dangerous they can be and how far they’ve come.

The result means that England’s Red Roses have won the title for the second year running. The hosts have two further matches to showcase their development while France will face a determined Irish side on 1^st November.