Scotland stun France in epic to blow Six Nations wide open

“That third quarter was another step up,” Townsend added. “To continue how we were playing and to put pressure on France… we felt there were errors in them when they [go] behind and force things.”

France, in both halves, still managed some utterly gorgeous tries. Dupont crossed after a sweeping move, Thomas Ramos added two, alongside 10 points from the boot, and Oscar Jégou also got on the scoresheet, but Les Bleus were masters of self-sabotage. On their day, France are giants, but after the feeble defeat by 14-player South Africa in the autumn, they are still dogged by inconsistency. In light of this result, the pre-match complaints of Fabien Galthié, the head coach, about the size of the Murrayfield changing room, look even more misguided.

“We are disappointed because we had a [Grand Slam] mission,” Galthié said. “Only one third of the match belonged to us and that’s not enough. We knew it was possible to come here and lose. Scotland played very well.”

Dupont added: “We were indisciplined and could not get out of our own half. I didn’t have any physical worries heading into the game, but the performance just was not there.”

France may yet still end this Six Nations as champions, but it was Scotland who delivered the championship’s champion performance at Murrayfield. Six days out, Super Saturday is already living up to its name.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0 Graham try, 7-0 Russell con, 7-5 Bielle-Biarrey try, 7-7 Ramos con, 7-12 Attissogbe try, 7-14 Ramos con, 12-14 Steyn try, 17-14 Schoeman try, 19-14 Russell con, 24-14 White try, 26-14 Russell con, 31-14 Steyn try, 33-14 Russell con, 38-14 Graham try, 40-14 Russell con, 45-14 Jordan try, 47-14 Russell con, 47-19 Dupont try, 47-21 Ramos con, 47-26 Ramos try, 50-26 Russell pen, 50-31 Jegou try, 50-33 Ramos con, 50-38 Ramos try, 50-40 Ramos con.

Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham, H Jones (Jordan 55), S Tuipulotu (capt), K Steyn (Douglas 66); F Russell, B White (Horne 63); P Schoeman (Sutherland 63), G Turner (Ashman 51), D Rae (Fagerson 39), G Brown (Gilchrist 32), S Cummings (Bayliss 51), M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey.
Sin-bin Bayliss 78.

France: T Ramos; T Attissogbe, N Depoortère (P-L Barass 44), Y Moefana, L Bielle-Biarrey; M Jalibert, A Dupont (capt, Serin 69); J-B Gros (Neti 51), J Marchand (Mauvaka 44), D Aldegheri (Bamba 51), C Ollivon (Flament 44), M Guillard (Meafou 44), F Cros, O Jegou, A Jelonch (Nouchi 42).
Sin-bin Jalibert 32, Nouchi 58.

Referee: A Gardner (Australia).

Attendance: 67,144.

5. England 23-29 Scotland: 2023 Six Nations

Duhan van der Merwe hammering in to score from the darkest depths of nowhere. It still aches for many England fans. And that game could have been so different had Van der Merwe not scored. Which makes it feel special for Scots, though you could argue it is not as historically significant as their first win at Twickenham since 1983, when in 2021 Finn Russell and Van der Merwe were the standouts in an echoing, fanless HQ. But doing it in front of fans puts it in the pantheon.