France claim Six Nations honours after bonus point victory

France claim Six Nations honours after bonus point victory

After defeating a plucky Scotland outfit 35-16 in Paris, France claimed the 2025 Six Nations title in fine style on Saturday night.

Tries from Yoram Moefana (2), Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Thomas Ramos, who finished with a 20-point haul, steered Les Bleus to tournament glory in front of their fans.

Scotland battled bravely throughout but missed opportunities and lack of brute force up front meant they were gradually moved out of reach of this superb France side.

Darcy Graham scored Scotland's only try of the game while Finn Russell kicked 11 points but Gregor Townsend's men will rue several missed opportunities on the night.

England were hoping Scotland would do them a favour after their impressive win over Wales moved them above Les Bleus ahead of this final clash of the Championship.

However, France looked on their game from kick-off at the Stade de France as Ramos slotted a simple penalty on four minutes, this after the Scots brought down a maul.

Another maul pull-down led to Jamie Ritchie being sin-binned by referee Matthew Carley after 12 minutes, but Scotland managed to survive the ensuing French onslaught.

That was until the 17th minute when a fine side-step and offload from Gael Fickou on the Scottish 22 sent centre partner Moefana scrambling under the uprights for 10-0.

Then came a moment of controversy as France hooker Peato Mauvaka threw himself into Scotland's Ben White on the ground, making head-on-head contact with the scrum-half after the referee's whistle had blown. However, his card remained yellow, much to the anger of plenty of supporters of Scotland who believed it should have been a straight red.

Russell would take the three points from the offence but that was soon wiped out by Ramos off the tee, who landed his own shot after Ritchie was penalised for offside.

Scotland were starting to find their groove with ball in hand and crossed the whitewash on 29 minutes when Russell's inside ball saw Graham slice through and get over.

Russell would level matters at 13-all four minutes before the interval after Jean-Baptiste Gros was yellow carded, but Ramos kicked a penalty of his own on 39 minutes.

Scotland thought they had crossed before the interval when Russell found Jordan who crashed over. However, Blair Kinghorn had grazed the sideline in an earlier attack.

It was a case of what if and that was only amplified when after an excellent start to the second period, Scotland found themselves under their posts in a flash when a loose pass was snapped up by Romain Ntamack, who passed it on to Bielle-Biarrey who cruised over. With the Ramos extra two points, France were 10 points in front against the run of play.

Russell would opt for three points on 50 minutes, which made it 23-16, as Scotland had the view there was ample time left, but one wondered if they should have gambled.

France would make them rue that decision as they picked up their third and fourth try before the hour mark as Ramos and Moefana finished well to stretch the lead to 19.

That margin felt like the match had been ended as a contest and so it proved as despite Scotland continuing to chance their arm while France looked to their power game, neither side would trouble the scorers thereafter as Les Bleus subsequently cruised to their first Six Nations title since 2022 as Ireland's Championship reign is brought to a conclusion.

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