Click photo to enlarge
France's Mathieu Bastareaud dives towards the line as his
scores the first try for France against Scotland during the
Six Nations international rugby match between Scotland and
France at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland, Sunday,
February 7, 2010. Photo by AP.
Mathieu Bastareaud scored his first two international
tries to help France open its Six Nations campaign with an 18-9
away victory over Scotland on Sunday.
Bastareaud touched down twice in the first half at
Murrayfield and France was only denied another two tries
before halftime by some last-ditch Scottish defending.
Flyhalf Francois Trinh-Duc orchestrated the French attacks
and an efficient blitz defense restricted Scotland to just
three penalties by Chris Paterson.
"Scotland is a team with a big heart and it is hard to play
against them," man of the match Imanol Harinordoquy said.
"When we want to win, we know we have to give a big
performance. "We won the match in the scrum and in the
fight."
France joined defending champion Ireland and England on two
points in the standings.
France hosts Ireland next weekend, when England goes to Italy
and Scotland is at Wales.
France effectively clinched victory in a first 40 minutes in
which it shared possession evenly but enjoyed 73% of the
territory.
Bastareaud was playing his first test since lying to local
police that he had been assaulted during last June's tour of
New Zealand, when he actually suffered the injuries while
alone in his Wellington hotel room. Bastareaud had to do
community service work as punishment and was excluded from
France's matches against South Africa, Samoa and New Zealand
in November.
His first try on Sunday came when he crashed over from close
range following a missed pass by Trinh-Duc and the flyhalf
was only prevented from touching down himself by a tackle in
the corner from Sean Lamont.
Thom Evans had already denied Vincent Clerc a try when he
turned the winger over to stop him grounding the ball, but
his positioning contributed to Bastareaud's second score in
the 33rd minute. Trinh-Duc spread the play from a throw on
France's right all the way to the other side of the field and
the Scottish backs were drawn in, leaving Bastareaud with
space to charge into and outpace forward Kelly Brown before
dummying the last man and touching down.
"We conceded two soft scores, really," Scotland coach Andy
Robinson said. "They've one of the best scrummages in the
world. "The French were very canny in what they did. It's a
very good French side that controlled the game."
Ireland and England each opened the Six Nations on Saturday
with an unconvincing victory.
Ireland showed only flashes of its best in a 29-11 win over
Italy, while England took advantage of Wales' indiscipline
and survived a late scare before winning 30-17 at Twickenham.
Ireland failed to add tries to first-half efforts by Jamie
Heaslip and Tomas O'Leary, and even handed Italy its only
touchdown of the game with an uncharacteristic error by
Ireland fullback Rob Kearney. But Ireland also started slowly
last season before winning its first Grand Slam since 1948
and shares the early lead with an England side that marked
the 100th anniversary of international rugby at Twickenham
with three tries.
It was only with Wales lock Alun-Wyn Jones off the field for
a cynical trip on Dylan Hartley that England overcame a
scrappy opening with two tries in less than 10 minutes either
side of halftime.
