Scotland vs. France: Date, Live Stream, TV Info, Six Nations 2016 Preview
It’s win or bust for France when they face Scotland on Sunday, with two points imperative if they are to keep their chances of Six Nations glory alive.
After back-to-back wins to start their campaign, Les Bleus were underwhelming in defeat against Wales last time out. However, should they bounce back with victory here, then there is still a chance they could be going into their final fixture of the tournament, in Paris against England, with a chance of winning the title.
Scotland at home is never an easy encounter, though, and they’ll be buoyed by a professional win over Italy in their third match. Here are the key viewing details for this one and a closer examination of how this crucial match is set to pan out.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Date: Sunday, March 13
Time: 3 p.m. (GMT)
Live Stream: BBC iPlayer (UK)
TV Info: BBC One
France Looking to Stay in Contention
After starting this year’s tournament so well, France coach Guy Noves will have been disappointed by the manner of his team’s loss to Wales last time out.
Indeed, so often we associate Les Bleus with attacking flair and inventive play in the backs, but they were easy to nullify when pinning the Welsh back. Indeed, during the second period, Wales were up against the ropes for such long spells, with the visitors unable to deliver a telling blow until the game was up.
One of the major bright sparks for the French in the loss to Wales was the virtuoso performance from their skipper Guilhem Guirado, who scored a late try. The Champions Cup feed summed up just how important he was on the night:
While Scotland may not be quite as defensively savvy as Warren Gatland’s Wales, you can see them posing a similarly stubborn barrier for the France attack.
At Murrayfield, Vern Cotter has made it so his side are very tough to beat, as they look to execute the basics of the game with minimal fuss. And against Italy in Rome in their last match, there was a little bit of a swagger about the Scots, putting their opponents to the sword 36-20 in an absorbing match.
They’ll have to raise their game if they’re to get anything from this one, though. As we can see, courtesy of the tournament’s official feed, they have a pretty underwhelming record when facing the Gallic outfit:
Still, as noted in the aforementioned piece, Finn Russell seems to quite fancy his side’s chances of taking the win in front of a raucous home crowd.
"We're confident, we had a good win at the weekend, but there is still a lot to improve and we need to focus on ourselves rather than getting caught up thinking we have won these games already," said Russell. "It's a Test match and it's not going to be easy no matter what, so I'd rather be focusing on ourselves."
Although they’re languishing down in fourth place, Scotland do have a very slender chance of winning this year’s tournament. But for them, finishing with a flourish by securing a win over a typically title-challenging nation—whether that be France or Ireland in their last match—would be a tangible sign of recent progress made.
However, France are likely to have too much for the hosts. With England and Wales facing each other on Saturday, Noves’ players will be aware of what’s at stake, and a win could potentially set up an absorbing finale in Paris. Expect them to adopt a similar gameplan to the one that was on show against the Welsh but to get over the line this time.
Prediction: Scotland 10-18 France
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
