Scotland slumped to their fifth defeat in a row as they were eventually outgunned by France at Murrayfield, 23-17.
Youngsters Stuart Hogg and Lee Jones scored tries to give a capacity crowd of 67,000 plenty to shout about, but it ended up as the same old story for Andy Robinson’s men as they allowed the French to overtake them in the end, a Lionel Beauxis drop goal finally sealing the home side’s fate.
A third successive defeat in the 2012 championship means Robinson has won a mere two games in his 13 in charge in the RBS 6 Nations with Scotland and leaves his side with away days in Ireland and Italy to come to salvage something from this season’s competition.
To make matters worse for Robinson he lost wing Rory Lamont with a knee injury just before the break and scrum half Mike Blair also departed at the same time with a dead leg.
The home side made a great start when Hogg dived over in the right corner and a conversion and penalty from Greig Laidlaw made it 10-0. But by the break the French were back on level terms thanks to a try from powerful centre Wesley Fofana and a conversion and penalty from the reliable boot of Morgan Parra.
In fact, Parra could have given his side the lead with the last kick of the first-half, but pushed his effort wide. He didn’t miss, however, early in the second half when his third success gave France the lead for the first time at 13-10.
But back came the Scots with a Jones try and brilliant touchline conversion from replacement debutant Duncan Weir and suddenly there was a sniff of an upset in the air. At least the Scots ere scoring tries and the introduction of the 19-year-old Hogg at full back gave the home team a real boost.
The French, though, didn’t reach the 2011 Rugby World Cup final for nothing and gave new coach Philippe Saint Andre plenty to smile about as they made it two from two with a try from Maxime Medard, a Parra conversion and then that Beauxis drop goal 12 minutes from time.
