France crowned Six Nations champions after Scotland thriller

Jack Wilkinson

@jacktwilkinson

France see off Scotland to clinch 2025 Six Nations title; first title since 2022 for Les Bleus sealed; victory came after England and Ireland had won earlier on Super Saturday as three teams finished the tournament with four wins out of five

Injured France captain Antoine Dupont lifted the Six Nations trophy after Saturday’s title-winning victory over Scotland

France regained the Six Nations title for the first time in three years with a 35-16 victory over Scotland in Paris.

Les Bleus required a victory of any kind to get their hands on the trophy, despite England’s emphatic victory in Cardiff taking the title race to the final game of the championship.

In a pulsating contest, Scotland threatened to provide their old enemy with the biggest of favours before a ruthless display of brute force saw France put their spirited challenge to bed.

France led 16-13 at the break thanks to Yoram Moefana’s try but could easily have trailed and been reduced to 14 players had Tom Jordan’s disallowed try stood and Peato Mauvaka been sent off for a blatant headbutt on Ben White.

But they took full advantage of the pair of reprieves, motoring to the title – the second of the Fabien Galthie era – in imperious fashion with three unanswered second-half tries.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey crowned his stellar campaign with his record-setting eighth try in this year’s Six Nations before additional scores from Thomas Ramos and Moefana started the party at the Stade de France, which culminated with injured captain Antoine Dupont lifting the trophy.

France see off stern Scotland challenge to clinch title

France were crowned 2025 Six Nations champions

Following a spectacular light show ahead of kick-off and amid a partisan atmosphere, France signalled their intent with a strong start which yielded a penalty which Thomas Ramos kicked between the posts in the fourth minute.

Scotland dug in to stop the fired-up hosts extending their advantage, although their hopes of maintaining a foothold were dented when Jamie Ritchie was sin-binned in the 12th minute for collapsing a maul.

France made the extra man count in the 18th minute after some brilliant work from Gael Fickou to send Yoram Moefana through for the first try of the night, with Ramos adding the extras.

The tide started to turn midway through the half, however, when French hooker Peato Mauvaka was yellow-carded – contentiously avoiding a red – after appearing to headbutt White. Finn Russell put the resulting penalty away from close range to get the visitors up and running.

Scotland’s Ben White clutches his face after appearing to be headbutted by France’s Peato Mauvaka

At the other end, White pulled off a stunning tackle to deny fellow scrum-half Maxime Lucu after he burst towards the line following a fumble by Russell.

This try-saving intervention seemed to have a galvanising effect on the Scots, who silenced the home support in the 28th minute when Russell put Graham in to score.

Further French indiscipline paved the way for Scotland to level things up at 13-13 as Jean-Baptiste Gros was sin-binned due to multiple team offences, and Russell did the damage with the penalty.

Darcy Graham led Scotland’s revival towards the end the first half

Ramos then restored the French lead with another penalty, but it was Scotland who looked to have edged ahead in the last action of the half when Jordan pushed his way over, only for the TMO to inform referee Matthew Carley that Blair Kinghorn’s elbow had gone into touch in the build-up.

France took full advantage of this dynamic-shifting reprieve and made a blistering start to the second half with Bielle-Biarrey bolting over for his eighth try of the championship – a new try-scoring record by one player in a single Six Nations campaign – which Ramos converted.

France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey equalled the record for the most tries in a Six Nations campaign with his eighth against Scotland

A Russell penalty brought Scotland back to within a converted score of being level. However, Ramos bolted over just before the hour – and then added the extras – to put the hosts 14 points clear and firmly in command of their destiny.

Moefana then added his second of the evening, taking the game beyond the Scots and allowing the party to begin well before the end.

‘Just as happy as winning Grand Slam’

France defence coach Shaun Edwards: “We showed resilience in defence second half, when we only conceded three points. We defended really well against Ireland but kind of went off it for the last five minutes, but today we were on it for the full 80.

“I feel just as happy as if it was a Grand Slam because it shows we had great resilience to come back from losing a game.”

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend: “Mixed feelings. We asked the players to deliver a performance of effort and physicality and they did that. Our forwards played outstanding rugby at times, really fronted up.

“We didn’t get the breaks, the bad luck before half-time [with a disallowed try] and then a mistake and they scored just after half-time. We were in that game for a lot of it.

“We were a bum cheek away from converting in the first half when Blair Kinghorn was just in touch and they are a very good defence. You need to have patience and accuracy and that was little bit missing today.”

British & Irish Lions tour of Australia on Sky Sports

Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.

Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app – giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Stream the EFL, Test cricket and more top sport with NOW.