France host Scotland in the Six Nations looking to seal the title on Super Saturday.
Les Bleus have bounced back with a vengeance from their shock one-point defeat by England at Twickenham in round two, putting 73 points on Italy before a statement second-half performance against Ireland in last weekend’s crunch clash in Dublin saw them crush their opponents 42-27, putting them in pole position for the championship with one round to go while likely ending the Grand Slam-chasing back-to-back champions’ bid for a historic third successive crown.
That sublime performance at the Aviva Stadium was made all the more impressive by the fact that they played for so long without their inspirational superstar captain Antoine Dupont, who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee after second row Tadhg Beirne accidentally fell on his leg at a ruck, leaving France coach Fabien Galthie incensed as the furious French camp reported both Beirne and prop Andrew Porter to the match’s citing commissioner, though no further action was taken.
Despite the significant absence of the world’s best player, France go into this weekend’s exciting finale knowing that any sort of win will be enough for them to win a first Six Nations title since 2022 and only their second in the last 15 years.
Bonus points will not be a factor if they are able to just win, thanks to their vastly superior points difference that will be too much for nearest challengers England or indeed Ireland to overhaul as they travel to face Wales and Italy respectively.
It gets more complicated after that, but few are backing against France to finish the job after such a devastating show of physicality and flair in Dublin.
Scotland’s impressive attacking game means they are capable of mixing it with any team in the world on their day and they do have recent success in Paris, though have endured another frustratingly inconsistent Six Nations campaign with a hard-fought win at home to Italy followed by a no-show against Ireland and agonising one-point loss in England as they relinquished the Calcutta Cup before surviving a second-half fightback from resurgent Wales at Murrayfield.
Gregor Townsend’s team can technically still win their first-ever Six Nations title on Super Saturday, but it would take a truly remarkable sequence of events for that to come to pass.
France vs Scotland date, kick-off time and venue
France vs Scotland is the final game to take place on Six Nations Super Saturday (March 15, 2025), after Italy vs Ireland in Rome and Wales vs England in Cardiff.
Kick-off is scheduled for 8pm GMT, with the match taking place at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, just outside Paris.
How to watch France vs Scotland
TV channel: France vs Scotland is being broadcast live and free-to-air in the UK on ITV1 and STV, with coverage getting underway at 7:15pm GMT.
Live stream: ITVX will have the game live online, that’s free with a registration. Fans can also access the STV Player.
Live blog: You can also follow proceedings with Standard Sport’s live blog on Saturday night.
France vs Scotland team news
Dupont is expected to miss six to nine months in a hammer blow for France, club side Toulouse and the sport of rugby in general, but understudy Maxime Lucu was excellent off the bench in Dublin and will deputise from the start now at scrum-half as number 8 Gregory Alldritt takes over the captaincy.
That is one of two changes from Galthie to the French team that started against Ireland, with vastly experienced centre Gael Fickou also returning in place of Pierre-Louis Barassi, who suffered concussion last weekend.
Otherwise France are unchanged, with Nolann Le Garrec providing cover for Lucu as the only back on a bench that shows another Springbok-esque 7-1 split. It’s a risky strategy that some claim is having a profound effect on the game, but it paid off handsomely in Dublin with no let up in the fearsome physicality.
Scotland also show two changes to the side that held off Wales, with versatile Glasgow forward Gregor Brown making his first Test start at lock in place of Jonny Gray, who drops to the bench.
There is no Jack Dempsey at all due to a hamstring injury as Matt Fagerson comes in at number 8, while Edinburgh forward pair Marshall Sykes and Ben Muncaster and Glasgow scrum-half Jamie Dobie are all drafted onto the bench as George Horne and Kyle Rowe drop out, along with Dempsey.
It is the first Six Nations involvement for both Sykes and Muncaster, who only have one cap each for Scotland to date.
France vs Scotland lineups
France XV: Ramos; Penaud, Fickou, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Ntamack, Lucu; Gros, Mauvaka, Atonio; Flament, Guillard; Cros, Boudehent, Alldritt (c)
Replacements: Marchand, Baille, Aldegheri, Auradou, Meafou, Jegou, Jelonch, Le Garrec
Scotland XV: Kinghorn; Graham, Jones, Jordan, Van der Merwe; Russell (co-c), White; Schoeman, Cherry, Z Fagerson; Brown, Gilchrist; Ritchie, Darge (co-c), M Fagerson
Replacements: Ashman, Sutherland, Hurd, J Gray, Sykes, Muncaster, Dobie, McDowall
France vs Scotland head to head (h2h) history and results
Scotland split a pair of 2023 World Cup warm-up Tests with France, while they came so close to beating them at Murrayfield in last year’s Six Nations only to be denied by a contentious last-gasp TMO call that ruled out what would have been the winning try.
After a losing run against them lasting for a decade, Scotland won matches against France in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.
However, they have won only once on French soil since 1999, an unforgettable 27-23 triumph with 14 men secured by Duhan van der Merwe’s late try in Paris four years ago that ruined French hopes of pipping Wales to the title on the final day.
France wins: 60
Scotland wins: 40
Draws: 3
France vs Scotland prediction
It would be so great for the competition for there to be some proper title jeopardy on Super Saturday, and France not playing until the evening means there will be intrigue throughout the day.
However, while Ireland and England should each hold up their ends of the bargain, it is so immensely difficult after that rout in Rome and demolition in Dublin to see Les Bleus slipping up again here on home soil with the title within their grasp - even while missing by far the world’s best player in the magical Dupont.
That infuriating narrow loss at Twickenham appears to have flicked a switch in the French mindset and to do what they did in that monstrous second half at the Aviva while without their captain and talisman was simply awe-inspiring.
Even without their own influential skipper in Sione Tuipulotu this Scotland backline is an absolute joy to watch at times and they are more than capable of making this game interesting, at least early on, but they are unlikely to have sustained answers for the non-stop, off-the-scale physicality of the French machine that does not skip a beat with seven forwards in reserve, particularly in Paris amid the partisan atmosphere at a bouncing and expectant Stade de France.
Few would bet against France scoring the four tries that would see them tally the most of any team in a single Six Nations campaign in history.
France to win, by 17 points.
France vs Scotland match odds
France to win: 1/10
Scotland to win: 13/2
Draw: 35/1
Odds via Betfair (subject to change).
