France claimed victory over Scotland in the final game of the Six Nations to take the championship at England’s expense – having been given a helping hand by the offiicals in Paris
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend was baffled by the decision not to send off French hooker Peato Mauvaka for an apparent headbutt on Ben White as Les Bleus overcame a first-half wobble to romp to a first Guinness Six Nations triumph since 2022.
The French ran out 35-16 victors at Stade de France to win the championship, an outcome Townsend conceded was deserved overall.
However, he was bemused by the contentious handling of a 20th minute flashpoint as Mauvaka escaped with only a yellow card after launching his head into White while the scrum-half was grounded, after being pushed over by Thomas Ramos amid a melee in the wake of a French penalty being awarded.
“Well the decision not to raise it to a red card was because there was not excessive force,” said Townsend. “I’m not sure that’s really the criteria for a non-tackle incident. It clearly was a non-tackle incident, it was after the whistle. So, if there was head contact and that was intentional, it shouldn’t be anything to do with the force that was involved.
“I feel sorry for Ben White here, because he did nothing. He was first of all pushed to the ground, and a push is nothing in rugby, and then he got collided in the head, so I don’t know how it wasn’t raised to a red card.
“But whether that has had anything to do with the final result, who knows, because France deserved the win, deserve to be champions, they’re a quality side.
“Even though we played really well at times tonight, France were the better team in the end.”
Scotland trailed 10-0 at the time of the incident following a Yoram Moefana try, but they rallied to get back to just 16-13 behind at the break after Darcy Graham hit back.
Scots centre Tom Jordan had a try disallowed in the last action of the first half after Blair Kinghorn’s elbow went into touch. France took full advantage of that reprieve with three further tries in the second half from Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Ramos and Moefana to secure only a second title for Les Bleus since 2010.
Townsend’s side finished fourth with just two wins from five for the second Six Nations in succession, but the head coach was heartened by the way they performed in the championship.
“It’s a difficult one because we lost the game and we weren’t pushing at the end to win the game, but what we asked for the players tonight was to deliver physically, and they did that,” said Townsend.
“There’s a lot to be proud of and a lot to build on. Strangely, our two best performances this year were in defeats to England and to France, especially 80-minute performances, but we can take a lot from those two games as we look to next year and beyond when we have those challenges again.”
France head coach Fabien Galthie admitted his team felt pressure in the first half before pulling away to secure the title.
“We scored 30 tries so we broke a record in the competition,” he said. “We managed to put defences out of balance during the tournament, but today it was more difficult, we scored only four tries. We were less dominant in attack than usual.
“I feel there was a bit of pressure. We put ourselves in danger. We were against a team that was totally light and had nothing to play for apart from their rugby.
“It’s been incredible to experience the past two months, all the opponents, the scenarios. We’re very happy.”
