Scotland produced a monumental defensive effort in freezing Paris and scored the only try but couldn’t quite get their first win in the French capital since 1999 as Camille Lopez’ five penalties won the Six Nations opener for France.
The Scots battled manfully and looked the more dangerous team in open play, but a succession of penalties against them were punished by Lopez, named man of the match.
Dougie Fife’s try just before half-time was the only try by either team and reward for the Scots’ enterprising play, but the French strangled the Scots in the second half with their big pack exerting pressure through mauls and a succession of penalties.
However they didn’t put the match to bed until Lopez’ fifth penalty four minutes from time as the Scots defended their own line with tenacity even when a man down as Johnnie Beattie was sib-binned.
After a resounding rendition of La Marseillaise, Scotland stole the first French lineout but were penalised for holding on as they tried to retain the ball, and Lopez kicked France in front off the right upright with barely two minutes played.
Greig Laidlaw levelled the scores for Scotland after 15 minutes when the French front row buckled in a scrum on their own 22, but Lopez restored France’s lead when the Scots crept offside as the home side exerted heavy pressure.
However it was Scotland who looked the more enterprising with ball in hand, Hogg and Bennett in particular slicing through the French defence at pace, only for a missed penalty by Stuart Hogg and a shanked drop goal from Finn Russell to mean they left a good spell without any points.
They also lost Tommy Seymour to a hip knock, Dougie Fife coming on to cope with France’s new golden boy Teddy Thomas.
They paid for it four minutes before half-time when Lopez kicked a third penalty, but the much vaunted French backline weren’t making much headway.
The Scots were, however, and another break by Hogg combining with Bennett almost got Visser in at the corner. The try was delayed only briefly as Dunbar was held, Russell spun a good pass to Bennett and Euan Murray was the unlikely link to give Fife his first try for his country.
Laidlaw’s conversion hit the post and stayed out to leave France 9-8 ahead at the break.
France got three more cheap points when Fife threw away the ball after taking it into touch and Lopez was on target again to stretch his side’s lead, but then he missed an easy kick to take France more than a converted try ahead.
The penalties kept coming against Scotland and Johnnie Beattie’s yellow card for hauling down a maul was inevitable, but the Scots still forced two turnovers near their own line and survived his absence without conceding any points.
The Scots got a whiff of an unlikely win as Russell chipped forward but saw the ball bounce high back over his head, and yet another penalty at the breakdown allowed Lopez to finally secure France’s win with three minutes left.
France: S Spedding; Y Huget, M Bastareaud (R Lamerat 72), W Fofana, T Thomas; C Lopez, R Kockott (M Parra 55); A Menini (E Ben Arous 40), G Guirado (B Kayser 48), R Slimani (Atonio 55); P Pape (R Taofifenua 62), Y Maestri; T Dusatoir (capt, L Goujon 79), B Le Roux, D Chouly.
Scotland: S Hogg; T Seymour (D Fife 16), M Bennett, A Dunbar (P Horne 68), T Visser; F Russell, G Laidlaw (capt, S Hidalgo-Clyne 78)); A Dickinson (G Reid 65), R Ford (F Brown 68), E Murray (G Cross 65); R Gray (J Hamilton 65), J Gray; R Harley (A Strokosch 63), B Cowan, J Beattie.
Ref: N Owens (WRU)