Scotland 6 France 27

Bless this boy! Scotland's Nick de Luca had a day that was almost as bad as Iain Balshaw's (15 for England on Saturday). The difference was it was his debut. First match nerves and the step up from club rugby to international was a huge task for him which he found very difficult to cope with.

On the other side, literally, was the confident French Fly Half Francois Trinh-Duc (cute guy below) who could do no wrong. He was one of 4 new players who went together to form a fresh, new, revitalised French squad. If you weren't Scottish, it was great rugby to watch - not a view shared by the packed house at Murrayfield.



New French coach (young and good looking girls!!) Marc Lievremont, looked very dapper in his cream poloneck and dark coat. He couldn't have wished for a better start for his team who under Bernard Laporte performed so disappointingly in the World Cup. He took a gamble and it worked, beautifully. French rugby can be a delight to watch, or a horror story when it doesn't, but this weekend it was a pure pleasure to watch.

Scotland, like England the day before, gave the match away after a strong start. They too now have some serious work to do to get their chins off the ground before their trip to Croke Park next week.

Scotland: Rory Lamont; Nikki Walker, Nick De Luca, Andrew Henderson, Simon Webster; Dan Parks, Mike Blair; Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Euan Murray, Nathan Hines, Jim Hamilton, Jason White (capt), John Barclay, Dave Callam
Replacements: Fergus Thomson, Gavin Kerr, Scott MacLeod, Kelly Brown, Chris Cusiter, Chris Paterson, Hugo Southwell.

France: Cedric Heymans; Vincent Clerc, David Marty, Damien Traille, Julien Malzieu; Francois Trinh-Duc, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde; Lionel Faure, William Servat, Julien Brugnaut, Loic Jacquet, Lionel Nallet (capt), Fulgence Ouedraogo, Thierry Dusautoir, Elvis Vermeulen
Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas, Arnaud Mela, Julien Bonnaire, Morgan Parra, David Skrela, Aurelien Rougerie.

Images Courtesy of Action Images PLC