Some defeats leave a mark on a championship. This one could leave a lasting scar. At Murrayfield, France fell from a great height. A very great height.

Beaten 50-40 by an irresistible Scotland, Fabien Galthié’s men endured an afternoon of disillusionment, shipping seven tries and giving way in almost every area of the game. A brutal reverse that ends any hope of a Grand Slam and blows the Six Nations wide open again. And it’s not as if the warnings weren’t there.

The final score barely tells the truth of what happened on the pitch. Because while France scored six tries and snatched an attacking bonus point late on, they were submerged for long stretches, beaten for intensity, overtaken by the tempo and often lost in the basics.

Unrecognisable

“Well done to the Scots, who played a big match,” was Galthié’s first reaction. “We were on the back foot for two thirds of the game, we had to close the gap and go and get that point.” The bare minimum, when the ambitions had been set far higher…

For half an hour and more, France held on. Tries from Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Théo Attissogbe answered Scotland’s early darts and kept France afloat. At the break, the deficit was only five points. Everything was still possible.

But the restart turned into a shipwreck. In less than twenty minutes, Scotland unleashed a storm on the French. Tries from Ben White, Kyle Steyn, Darcy Graham and then Tom Jordan. An avalanche. A demonstration. A France side suddenly disorganised, penalised and unable to slow the opposition machine down.

At one point the Scots even racked up forty unanswered points, the mark of total dominance at the breakdown, of speed and of precision. France, meanwhile, piled up the errors and the fumbles they had grown out of showing. A brittle defence, a rattled set piece, fragile discipline with two yellow cards. So many warning signs for a group that until then looked to be strolling through the Championship.

Scotland without a care

Opposite them, Scotland produced one of their most complete performances of the modern era. Seven tries, an attack off the leash and a Murrayfield in raptures. “We wanted to play without fear and attack every opportunity“, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend explained after the game. “The players were brave and ambitious.”

Driven by an inspired Finn Russell and a red-hot Darcy Graham, who became his country’s all-time leading try-scorer along the way, the Scots played fast, played smart and played hard.

Captain Sione Tuipulotu was savouring the outstanding display too. “We showed a lot of character today. We believed in what we were doing“, he said after the final whistle.

And Dupont came up short…

Even Antoine Dupont, who did score a breakaway try late on, never managed to take back control of the tempo. The passing was at times imprecise, the exits from their own half difficult, and the French half-back pairing was under constant Scottish pressure.

France’s belated response, with four tries in the last quarter of an hour including a brace from Thomas Ramos, served only to reduce the bill and rescue the attacking bonus point.

A consolation prize. Because for the first time in more than a decade in the Championship, France conceded fifty points in a match.

“We’ve spoken to each other, we’d rather take the positives and look ahead to the next match”, said Mathieu Jalibert coolly on TF1, having also had an off day himself.

A warning before the Crunch

All is not lost, though. Thanks to the attacking bonus point and a better points difference, France remain top of the table going into the final round. But this fall changes everything.

It is a reminder that this team, brilliant at times, can also wobble when the intensity rises and the stakes get white-hot. France will have to beat England in the closing Crunch to make sure of the title. After the slap in the face at Murrayfield, one thing is certain: they can no longer afford to shake.