Dominant France brush past Scotland

Scotland 0 France 31

Dimitri Yachvili struck 16 points as France cruised to a comfortable 31-0 triumph over Scotland at Murrayfield to maintain their momentum at the top of the RBS 6 Nations Championship table.

Olivier Magne set the tone for the formidable French with an early try.

Yachvili failed to convert but the scrum-half hit back with four penalties before converting two Yannick Jauzion tries in the second half.

However, Scotland head coach Matt Williams was left ever closer to the wooden spoon in his first Six Nations tournament with a daunting trip to Dublin on the horizon next weekend.

France were first to draw blood after six minutes when Magne evaded the lunge of Chris Paterson to step over the line.

Serge Betsen had found Jauzion on his left and the Toulouse man’s pass left Magne with space on the left flank but Yachvili failed to convert.

But Yachvili atoned for that miss in the 14th minute when an offside decision allowed him to score a further three points.

Yachvili was again involved in the action moments later when Derrick Lee was sin-binned for tackling the Biarritz man in the air.

Pepito Elhorga appeared to have added another try in the 28th minute from a clever Nicolas Brusque ball through to the line but the number 14 could not fully put the ball down.

Yachvili was again on target with another penalty from 45 metres in the 34th minute to give the French an 11-0 lead.

Scotland had barely been out of their own half in the first period and the half-time whistle offered their only respite from Les Bleus’ pressure.

The French carried on where they had left off and, just three minutes after the break, Yachvili added his third penalty of the day to leave the Scots trailing 14-0.

Four minutes later, the Biarritz scrum-half hit a fourth as the French began to rack up the points.

Williams switched Lee for Dan Parks halfway through the second period with Paterson moving to full-back as the substitute took up residence at stand-off.

But still France were on top and Betsen went over the line but was penalised for a knock-on.

Then, in the 64th minute, Jauzion added a further try when Parks lost the ball at a scrum before Yachvili began a passing movement across field which saw the Toulouse man touchdown.

Yachvili converted the try to take the score to 24-0 to the French.

Six minutes before the end, Jauzion scored a second try after an excellent movement involving Julien Peyrelongue, Brusque and Julien Bonnaire.

Yachvili again converted from under the posts.