Preview: Scotland v France

25 Feb 2022

Scotland host France at BT Murrayfield this Saturday in Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations.

What they said this week

Magnus Bradbury said: “It’s familiar opposition this weekend, we know what France can bring and we know how well they’ve been playing.

“For us we need a reaction from last weekend and the challenge for us this weekend is huge, but we’ve looked at them and we know their strengths and we know our strengths. It’s going to be a battle, but we’re looking forward to it.

“Going from a few games with no crowds to 67,000 people at BT Murrayfield is pretty special. The crowd is probably the main thing that gets us over that line and pushes us an extra ten percent to perform.

“We’ve looked at the positives and negatives from last week and we firmly believe it’s in our control to react this week.”

Sam Skinner said: “We’ve played France a few times over the years and winning at home and winning away definitely gives us confidence and belief that we can beat them.

“We’ve beaten them in the past but they’re an improving side and are extremely strong right now, everyone can see that. And they’ve been consistent with it as well.

“I think this is the strongest France side we’ll have faced over the last few occasions we’ve played them and we need to make sure we’re at our very best in order to get the win.”

Gregor Townsend said: “It’s one of the biggest challenges you get in world rugby, when you’re playing arguably the best team in the world on form, a team that’s full of confidence which has had some big wins and have every player available to them.

“It’s one of those challenges we believe our squad will rise up to. We’ve seen it before and we know from our disappointing defeat to Wales we have to play better.

“We’ve seen that reaction in training and we know we’ll get that reaction at the weekend.”

The teams

Key stats

This will be the 99th meeting between Scotland and France in all competitions, France lead the head to head so far with 56 wins (L39, D3), however honours are even across the last 10 clashes.
Scotland have won four of their last six Guinness Six Nations games against France, including the last two in a row and a first win in Paris since 1999, they’ve not won three in a row against them in the Championship since winning three on the trot across the 1956, 1957 and 1958 Five Nations.
France have opened their 2022 Guinness Six Nations with a pair of wins, something they also managed in 2021, the only time since 2011 when they’ve won their opening three games was in 2020, when they missed out on the title and a Grand Slam after a Round 4 defeat to Scotland at BT Murrayfield.
France haven’t given up a try-scoring bonus point in the Guinness Six Nations since Ireland crossed the try line four times in Round 4 2019, the longest ongoing such run of any side in the Championship.
Scotland (93%) and France (92%) have the best two tackle success rates of any side in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations.
Scotland have won 100% (28/28) of their own lineouts in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations so far, the only side to have a perfect record in this facet of the game, they also have a 100% success rate on scrums on their own feed, one of three sides to manage this (also England and Ireland).
Scotland have beaten more defenders (42) than any other side in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations, France rank second in this category.
Scotland duo Stuart Hogg (843) and Finn Russell (747) have accrued more kicking metres than any other players in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations so far.
Scotland’s Darcy Graham has beaten a Championship high nine defenders so far in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations.