France recover to beat Scotland 22-13
Lionel Beauxis broke the century mark in test points on Saturday as France bounced back from last week's defeat by Ireland to beat Scotland 22-13 in the Six Nations.
Beauxis contributed 17 points in a tight match while Fulgence Ouedraogo and former boy band member Thom Evans scored their first ever international tries although the Frenchman's effort looked to be the product of a forward pass.
"There is satisfaction that we won, and France never gave up and continued to fight," said France coach Marc Lievremont.
"But there were a lot of mistakes. I wanted a good victory and to spend a nice Valentine's Day night with my wife but it looks like I will have to spend tonight looking at the video instead."
The Scots camped in the French half for the opening 10 minutes but were unable to convert possession into points, though the French didn't do themselves any favours by losing two lineouts.
However, it was the hosts who had the first opportunity of putting points on the board in the 13th minute when referee George Clancy awarded them a penalty but Beauxis sent it wide of the posts.
The Scots had their problems in the scrum exacerbated when lock Jim Hamilton had to come off prior to the 20-minute mark and was replaced by backrow forward Kelly Brown, meaning that the Scots now had five backrow forwards in the scrum and no specialist lock.
Beauxis eventually gave France the lead in the 23rd minute as he slotted over a penalty.
The Scots levelled in the 35th minute as Phil Godman put over a beautifully taken penalty from wide out on the right after Cedric Heymans was penalised by Clancy.
Beauxis had an opportunity to restore the three-point lead a minute later but he failed to seize it and was rewarded with boos and whistles from the crowd.
However, he was back in favour in the 38th minute as he converted a penalty after John Barclay was judged to have made a high tackle.
The French came out with all guns firing at the start of the second-half and got their reward when Maxime Medard offloaded to Ouedrago, who crossed the line and Clancy awarded the try after picking himself up off the ground having been caught in the move. Beauxis converted to make it 13-3.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden was angry over the try decision.
"It was a forward pass. I have looked at it again, it was a forward pass," said Hadden.
"It was frustrating to lose. We were good in the contact, brave and we deserved better from the game."
Godman converted a penalty in the 49th minute to take the visitors within a converted try of the French.
Beauxis added another three points for France after Benoit Baby was tackled high.
Beauxis converted another penalty just before the hour mark as Scotland started to become error prone, spilling too many balls and failing to take advantage of the times they threatened the French line.
However, the Scots got themselves back into the match with 10 minutes remaining as Thom Evans took a beautiful pass from Godman and touched down.
Chris Paterson converted to make it 19-13.
Beauxis put France safe with another penalty with eight minutes remaining.
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