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Scotland player ratings vs France | 2024 Guinness Six Nations

Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe of Scotland look dejected following the team's defeat during the Guinness Six Nations 2024 match between Scotland and France at BT Murrayfield Stadium on February 10, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Scotland player ratings: Scotland led for 69 minutes at Murrayfield but ultimately ended up rueing their failure to close out another tight contest, having prevailed by a point in Cardiff last week.

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They might have won it at the end, but after four minutes of deliberation by the TMO, were denied a winning try despite it appearing replacement Sam Skinner had forced the ball down over the line.

Here is how the players fared:

15. Harry Paterson – 7.5
With Kyle Steyn’s wife going into labour on the eve of the game, Paterson was thrown straight in for his Test debut after just eight senior outings with Edinburgh. His bright pink boots made him stand out even further but looked at home on the big stage. Dealt with high balls well, kicked long and accurately, and played a key part in White’s try with a lovely fend and inside pass to Jones.

14. Kyle Rowe – 6
Moved back to his familiar wing beat after a promising first Test start against Wales last week, the game rarely came Rowe’s way and had precious few chances to show his wares until two minutes from time, when his stunning break-out almost brought late salvation for the Scots.

13. Huw Jones – 6.5
Brilliant, instinctive pass to release Ben White for his try illustrated his attacking prowess, albeit he wasted an earlier attack with a delayed pass to Darge.  Good footwork early in the second half to weave his way out of trouble and another solid contribution in defence.

12. Sione Tuipulotu – 6
Played a part in White’s try with a familiar wraparound move outside Russell and half-a-dozen hard carries in midfield got his side on the front foot, but couldn’t quite influence the game as much as he might have liked.

11. Duhan van der Merwe – 5.5
Came off his left wing to make the extra man in the attack that led to White’s try, but didn’t have the ball in his hands enough from a Scottish point of view. Well shackled by the French defence, and made one excellent cover tackle to collar Fickou after the centre’s coruscating break.

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10. Finn Russell – 7.5
His game management was sound in the main, keeping France pinned back with the length and variety of his kicking game, and it was the co-captain’s persistence that won the ball back in the final knockings that almost led to a winning try. 100% off the tee for a second successive week with four from four.

9. Ben White – 7
Another strong outing from the Toulon scrum-half, who ran a superb support line to finish off a brilliant move for his fourth Test try, and carried out his duties from the base with an increasing air of authority to take some of the load off Russell.

1. Pierre Schoeman – 6.5
Carried hard in the tight exchanges and his tackle count was into double figures for a second week in a row.  Competed well against Atonio at scrum-time, holding his end up well.

2. George Turner – 6
Forced off for an HIA in the first half but returned to the fray and performed well at the set-piece, finding his target on 11 out of 12 occasions at the lineout before giving way to Ashman with 12 minutes left.

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3. Zander Fagerson – 7.5
Another powerful display from the Glasgow tighthead, who gave the Scots a solid platform at scrum-time, carried hard and made a dozen tackles. Showed his durability by going the full 80, with Millar-Mills left on the bench.

4. Grant Gilchrist – 6
Restored to the side in place of the injured Richie Gray, the experienced Edinburgh lock presided over a strong lineout display, taking a few throws himself, and grafted hard in the tight exchanges.

5. Scott Cummings – 7
Stepped up well in the absence of Gray and a dynamic presence at the lineout, a safe middle option on his own ball and a disruptor on France’s, stealing two opposition throws. One knock-on blotted his copybook with ball in hand, but a strong outing.

6. Matt Fagerson – 5
His head was on the receiving end of Atonio’s shoulder just before half-time, and failed to reappear after the interval. Grafted hard as ever, but struggled to impose himself on proceedings.

7. Rory Darge – 8
Making his return from a strained knee ligament after six weeks on the sidelines, the Glasgow flanker looked like he’d never been away, winning an early breakdown penalty and leading from the front on both sides of the ball. Finished as his side’s top carrier – with 13 – and tackler – also 13. Didn’t  deserve to finish on the losing side.

8. Jack Dempsey – 6
Restored to the starting XV after being left on the bench in Cardiff, the Glasgow No.8 didn’t bring as much go-forward as Scotland might have hoped with his ball-carrying. But put in a full shift in defence with 12 tackles and continued to take the fight to the French until the end.

REPLACEMENTS:

16. Ewan Ashman – 5
Had a gallop for 12 minutes in the first half when Turner departed for an HIA and on permanently for the last 12. One lost lineout and struggled to make an impact.

17. Alec Hepburn – NA
Took over from Schoeman for the final nine minutes but little chance to influence proceedings.

18. Elliot Millar-Mills – Not used

19. Sam Skinner –  NA
Only on for the final six minutes, but nearly made the biggest of impressions when he appeared to force his way over for a winning try at the death, only for the TMO to deny him what would have been his first try for Scotland.

20. Andy Christie – 6.5
In prime form for Saracens this season, replaced Matt Fagerson at the interval and proved a useful source of lineout ball as well as contributing seven tackles, but few opportunities with ball in hand.

21. George Horne – Not used
22. Ben Healy – Not used

23. Cameron Redpath – NA
Replaced Huw Jones for the final three minutes.  Too little time to have an impact.

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1 Comment
D
DarstedlyDan 314 days ago

Kyle Rowe’s defence was a liability for Scotland all game. Out of position (including for France’s second half try), poor tackling technique (upright but non-dominant, meaning he fell off most of what he attempted), spent most of the time jumping up and down trying to avoid contact. Reminds me a bit of James Lowe when he first moved to Ireland - defence optional. I hope he can do the same as Lowe and work on his defence as he has some good attacking vision.

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JW 5 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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