France deserve Six Nations coronation but fall short of royal performance | Andy Bull

Yesterday at 04:00 AM

Scotland were almost the party poopers but in the end the flame throwers and fireworks were not in vain for French

For a moment, a brief, flickering moment, you just wondered whether it was all about to come crashing down. Scotland had just scored one of the great tries, off the back of a twisty blistering run from Blair Kinghorn, which had begun well back in his own 22, and went in, out, one way then the other, deep into the French half.

Matt Fagerson carried the ball on and all of a sudden there was Tom Jordan, slipping away from Gaël Fickou like he was shrugging off a wet raincoat, to score. France were a man down, Scotland were two points up, and Finn Russell was staring down the conversion. And then – pop! – the referee, Matt Carley, punctured the bubble and told Russell that actually Kinghorn had just been in touch.