France v Scotland: Six Nations 2025 – live
Key events
8 mins. Mauvaka nicks a turnover and bundles forward into the 22. As the ball moves right it’s floated to Moefana who tickles a grubber in-goal but Russell covers across to tidy it up.
6 mins. The visitors are not here to shepherd France to victory and FInn Russell get them going with a raking cross-kick that finds van der Merwe on the left. He’s set to turn on the pace but a slip halts his plan. The pace of the game is relentless and possession is traded a couple of times.
PENALTY! France 3 – 0 Scotland (Thomas Ramos)
4 mins. More possession for France, this time via a massive maul that marches forward fifteen metres and leaves Scotland with little choice but to infringe to stop it’s murderous progress.
Ramos calls for the tee and puts his side on the board early.
2 mins. Scotland are tidy in the restart exit and France are immediately on the attack, giving nearly everyone a feel of the ball and a run. The ball comes to the right but Penaud is bundled into touch.
Kick Off!
We’re eighty minutes or so away from the tournament being won as Ref Carley toots his whistle and Ntamack boots the ball deep.
The teams are in the tunnel waiting for the French hype-man to finish his whipping up the crowd. They finally emerge into what sounds like an AI generated Jean-Michel Jarre track booming out over the tannoy.
They assume the formalities formation. There’ll be a game soon.
Officials for this deciding match:
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (England) and Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Television Match Official (TMO): Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
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Teams
Galthie has been forced into the selection of Maxime Lucu following Antoine Dupont’s knee injury, and he no doubt welcomes the return of Gaël Fickou’s quality and experience in the centres. Nolann Le Garrec is the backs cover on the bench that remains the terrifying 7-1 prospect that disassembled Ireland.
For Scotland, Gregor Brown replaces Jonny Gray in the second row while Matt Fagerson comes in for the injured Jack Dempsey at Number 8. Marshall Sykes and Ben Muncaster have been named on the bench, Six Nations debutants both.
France:
Thomas Ramos, Damian Penaud, Gaël Fickou, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Romain Ntamack, Maxime Lucu, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Peato Mauvaka, Uini Atonio, Thibaud Flament, Mickaël Guillard, François Cros, Paul Boudehent, Grégory Alldritt (captain).
Replacements: Julien Marchand, Cyril Baille, Dorian Aldegheri, Hugo Auradou, Emmanuel Meafou, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch, Nolann Le Garrec
Scotland:
Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell (co-captain), Ben White, Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge (co-captain), Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Jonny Gray, Marshall Sykes, Ben Muncaster, Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall
Preamble
After the absolute powdering of Wales by England in Cardiff we arrive at the final game of the tournament with a simple ask for France: win the game and take the trophy in front of a home crowd.
The performances coming in suggest it should be eminently achievable, but can Scotland ruin the party and hand the Six Nations to the Auld Enemy?
For clarity, a win of any sort for France is enough due to their whopping points difference, but four tries and a bonus point means an outright win.
