The massive French winger Aurelie Rougerie put in two huge hits within the first two minutes, but he managed to hurt himself not the Scottish back row and had to leave the field almost before the game had stated. Would that that had been an omen.

In fact, that was about the last one on one contest the French lost all afternoon.  And that’s allowing for the fact that Scotland scored first.

For once a Chris Paterson penalty had been won fair and square by a decent attack, rather than some long range effort after a technical infringement. An interception by Max Evans and some strong running from Graeme Morrison in the centre forced the French offside.

In fact Scotland made more line breaks than they have for years. Paterson’s second penalty came after some strong running out of defence by Phil Godman and a charge by John Beattie.

The trouble was that in the meantime France had been up the other end. Clerc had been held up over the line and after a number of other near-misses, centre Bastareaud had eventually got over in each corner, first on the right and then, after Paterson’s second penalty on the left and after the Scottish defence was, for once,  posted missing .

And  if you score penalties and the opposition score tries, you’re never going to win the game. And the French scrum half Parra noched a penalty just for good measure.

More heroic defence did keep a  sustained French assault at bay just before half time, after the second of two charge-downs had put Scotland under pressure once again. But you felt it was essential that Scotland scored first in the second half to be in the game. Instead it was France who notched another penalty, again because Scotland were on the defensive and broke the rules in desperation.

Still coming forward, Paterson was again able to collect three points when really only five would do to keep the deficit under ten points. But with Scotland’s scrum creaking ominously only the relative weakness of Parra’s kicking kept Scotland in touch.

By that stage  Paterson had move to fly-half, replacing Godman who had been having a generally poor game apart from the occasional run. But a telling statistic by the middle of the final quarter showed that while possession had been more or less even, France had played most of the game in Scotland’s half and quite a lot of in the 22.

Time and again Scotland’s defensive qualities were tested and held firm. But barring the odd solo exploit from Lamont, Scotland’s attacking efforts were few and far between and Lamont so outpaced his team-mates that the support was never there to finish the move.

A final flourish raised the spirits but not the score. There were further signs of progress for Scotland, but, as yet, not enough.

Scorers
Scotland: Pen: Paterson x3
France: Tries:  Bastareaud x2  Con:  Parra  Pen:  Parra x2