Four talking points as Scotland seek to spoil France title party

Scotland find themselves cast in the role of potential party poopers as they head to Paris for the final game of the 2025 Six Nations on Saturday.

Any sort of win should be enough for France, given their vastly superior points difference over second-placed England, to clinch a record-equalling seventh title, which would match England’s tally since the Championship expanded in 2000.

The Scots have lost No.8 Jack Dempsey to injury, with Matt Fagerson restored to the back row and Gregor Brown handed a fourth Test start – and first in the Six Nations – as Jonny Gray joins fellow lock Marshall Sykes and back-rower Ben Muncaster in a beefed-up bench to try to counteract France’s seven forwards among the replacements.

Even a surprise win at the Stade de France may not be enough to lift Scotland higher than their current fourth place depending on the outcome of the first two matches, but head coach Gregor Townsend remained upbeat about the challenge ahead as he discussed the prospects for Paris with the media on Thursday.

Scots have nothing Toulouse in how they approach game

While Antoine’s Dupont’s season-ending injury deprives France of their talismanic captain and arguably the best player in the world, there will still be 10 other Toulouse players in the hosts’ 23-man squad taking on Scotland on Saturday.

The influence of the reigning Top 14 and European champions on the fortunes of the national team has been much in evidence in recent weeks, but Scotland have an inside track on what it might take to put a spanner in the works – and not just because full-back Blair Kinghorn is a part of that successful Toulouse team.

Townsend spent two years playing alongside Toulouse head coach Ugo Mola during his playing days at Castres in the early 2000s and counts him as a good friend. That relationship has led to “an exchange of ideas” between the two organisations, with several of Townsend’s staff spending time in the Haute-Garonne and vice-versa.

“Over the last couple of years we've worked closely with Toulouse,” he explained. “They've studied us and said they would like to send coaches over to see what we do. And since Blair's been there, (assistant coach) Pete Horne has been over, plus (forwards coach) John Dalziel, and I went over this year.

“Obviously Toulouse is a very different type of rugby that it's good to learn from, and also pick the brains of Blair when he comes back. We know about their DNA, how they play and how they practise it. And we've learned from that as well. There's been a stylistic change in how we've played this year, bringing our forwards into the game a bit closer.

“For us this will be the ultimate challenge against a team that has got players who have been doing that regularly this season. It can be very difficult to stop because of those pick-and-goes. They do two things to a defence: either they go through and get an offload to a nine or someone else, or it narrows up the defence because you have to put more bodies to defend there, and then they get the ball to the backs. I'm really looking forward to that challenge and seeing how we go about counteracting that this week.”

France playing ‘best rugby I’ve seen from a French team’

France’s last two performances – a record 11-try, 73-24 trouncing of Italy in Rome and their 42-27 dismantling of Ireland in Dublin – were sure signs of a rugby nation blessed with all the talents starting perhaps to realise their outstanding full potential.

Les Bleus have scored 26 tries in their first four games. If they manage four more on Saturday, they will break England’s Six Nations record of 29 for a single campaign, set in 2001.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey has scored seven of them. One more would see the electric wing surpass the Six Nations record he currently shares with Ireland’s Jacob Stockdale (from 2018), and equal the all-time championship record of eight, owned by England’s Cyril Lowe (1914) and Scotland’s Ian Smith (1925) for the past 100 years. A double would put Louis B-B out on his own.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey consolidated his standing as one of rugby's hottest properties against Ireland (Photo by PAUL FAITH/Getty Images)

With Toulouse and Bordeaux also racking up huge scores against the likes of Leicester and Exeter in this season’s European Champions Cup, Townsend’s assertion it would be “a really exciting time if you’re a French rugby supporter right now” had just a hint of under-statement.

“While their performances in this Six Nations have been the best I've seen from a French team, two years ago - when they put 50 points on England away – was pretty good too,” he noted. “I thought some of the displays in the (2023) World Cup were at such a high level, they probably deserved more. That game against South Africa was one of the best games I've ever seen and that was just a quarter-final. They also beat New Zealand in the World Cup, and they beat New Zealand in November.

“They're playing a game of rugby that really suits their strengths. Sometimes when you've got a massive pack, some teams have slowed down the game and tried to make it a set-piece battle and a power battle. But they're able to get that power linked to an attacking style of rugby that means it's going to be high speed; there's going to be off-loads, and there's going to be backs that get on ball.”

Scots ‘not going to go away’ and will 'plant seeds of doubt'

Scotland have won five of their 12 meetings with France under Townsend, even if the last three championship meetings have all gone Les Bleus’ way. Agonisingly so, at Murrayfield last year when Sam Skinner’s late ‘try’ was not given, and two years ago in Paris, when the Scots recovered from an early Grant Gilchrist red card and a 19-0 deficit to make it 25-21 heading into the end-game before a late Gael Fickou try did for them.

But eight of the 23 on duty this Saturday were also part of Scotland’s dramatic smash-and-grab victory in the final, rescheduled game of the 2021 Championship via Duhan van der Merwe’s late try, their first win in Paris since 1999. They also out-scored France four tries to three in a pre-RWC23 warm-up Test in Saint-Étienne the hosts edged 30-27.

“While it was a warm-up game, that was still a very strong French team,” Townsend noted. “The atmosphere was really loud, and a lot of our players played in both those games as well as two years ago, which was a real open, challenging game where both teams had opportunities.

“We felt we could have scored a couple more, and we also got that sense of when France are under pressure, what that does to them. That's why we have to provide as much evidence as possible this week to France and their supporters that we're not going away.

“We're going to make the best use of the ball, put you under pressure, we're going to be physical to plant the seeds of doubt, to force them to have to play a different way. While that will be challenging, I believe this team can go and do that.”

…But they don’t have any notions of snatching the Six Nations title

In the unlikely event that Ireland come unstuck against Italy in Rome in the first game of Super Saturday, and then Wales end their 16-Test losing run by upsetting England in Cardiff (it wouldn’t be the first time), France could kick off at 21:00 local time in Paris knowing they have effectively already won the championship.

The one, rather outlandish, caveat is that Scotland could even steal the title themselves in that scenario, albeit needing the small matter of a 52-point win to do so.

Understandably, such a prospect has not featured highly – or at all - in the Scots’ preparations this week. “No, we've not talked about that with the players,” Townsend said. “I didn't even know until someone mentioned it to me on Saturday night.

“It's one of the biggest challenges anyway, to go to Stade de France and win. We know that it's been very tough for us over the decades with Scotland. This is going to be even more of a challenge, just because of the form that France are showing.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MARCH 08: Gregor Townsend, Head Coach of Scotland looks on as the team warms up prior to the Guinness Six Nations 2025 match between Scotland and Wales at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on March 08, 2025 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“They're playing some of the best rugby I've ever seen from them, as a supporter, player and as a coach. Our focus is about how we get our game out, but also how we stop France from getting any easy ways into the game, stop them getting momentum through their carries and through other parts of the game.

“We're going to have to score some tries to win this game, but we are capable of doing that. It's a really exciting opportunity, going to Paris with the eyes of the rugby world watching this game, maybe because they see France as a team that's going to win. What a great opportunity for us to show our best version of ourselves over the 80 minutes.”

Not 40, or 50, or even 60, but 80 minutes. Now wouldn’t that be something for Scotland supporters to savour, regardless of the result.