Glasgow (AFP)
The French could not do better than a draw (13-13) on Sunday at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow for the 4th day of the Six Nations Tournament, jeopardizing the 2nd place of the Blue behind the untouchable English in the standings.
This draw with a taste of defeat allows them to regain second place in the Tournament all the same, but gives the final victory to the English who are out of reach with 19 points.
The resumption of international matches was very complicated for the Blues who had not let slip the victory against the XV thistle since 2010 and a 10-8 defeat.
The French, tied on points with Ireland (13 pts) where they will move next week after the reversal of the poster due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will have to whip to keep this place of runner-up.
Penalized by their extreme clumsiness --7 hand errors in the first period alone - the Habs even had to play the last 23 minutes at 14 because they had exhausted their replacements.
However, they seemed to have done the hard part by taking an advantage of 10 points at the very beginning of the second act.
Thanks to two attempts at exact copies of each other, on penetrating groups after hits 5 meters from the line, the first by Safi N'Diaye (5-0, 6th), the second by Agathe Sochat (13 -3, 45th) - the French had made speak their superior physical power.
But they failed to launch large-scale movements due to their lack of precision or rhythm, leaving the Scots to the contrary to remain hopeful.
Limited in their ambitions of play, but very developed in the conservation of the ball and the sequences, the Scots scored a real good try 6 minutes from the end with a movement off that exploited the French numerical inferiority.
© 2020 AFP