France’s hopes of a Six Nations Grand Slam are over after revitalised Scotland inflicted their fourth consecutive Murrayfield defeat.
Fabien Galthie’s side had won their first three games of the Six Nations but a first-half red card for Mohamed Haouas let Scotland seize control.
Sean Maitland crossed either side of the break after Damian Penaud’s score, before Stuart McInally added a third.
Charles Ollivon’s late try could not deny Gregor Townsend consecutive wins.
Adam Hastings, who impressed in place of the exiled Finn Russell, added 13 points with the boot.
France are now second in the championship and even a bonus-point win over Ireland in Paris next weekend might not seal the title with England still to face Italy.
Chasing the fourth leg of a Grand Slam, France were met with Scottish belligerence from the get-go, their day beginning badly and getting steadily worse from that point.
Here they met a home team who had no truck with all the chat of the glorious revival of Les Bleus. They said privately they believed they would win and they set about their mission with zeal.
There were towering performances from the Scotland back row, with Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson bringing their relentless personalities to bear. Lock Grant Gilchrist was outstanding. The front row to a man were ferocious, with prop Zander Fagerson doing his bit in a winning scrum and putting in a monstrous shift around the park.
Hastings was terrific and this was a big day for Stuart Hogg, perhaps his biggest in a Scotland jersey. As captain, he would have felt the joy of this big time. There were big performers all over the field. Red card or no red card, this was richly deserved.
France had Francois Cros binned early for dumping Gilchrist on his head in the tackle, with Paul Willemse perhaps getting off lightly for he was on the scene as well. And while Cros was away for his 10 minutes – and there was a case for it being a red card – Scotland hit the front.
The visitors’ scrum has been one of their few areas of weakness on their road to Murrayfield this season and now it hurt them again. The Scots have been reborn in that department. When France collapsed, Hastings banged over the first points.
Romain Ntamack had gone by then, the brilliant fly-half injured inside 10 minutes. It was another blow following the withdrawal in the warm-up of their replacement hooker Camille Chat. Things were not going their way.
Cros returned but Hastings made it 6-0 just after. A quarter had been played and France had produced nothing. When they threatened to get up a head of steam, they were halted by the aggression coming at them, their threat snuffed out early through Scotland’s intensity and their own handling errors under the pressure of the blitz.
Murrayfield revelled in it – and then Murrayfield winced. Having looked passive, France suddenly switched and regained their magic, if only for a brief period.
A thrust up the left from Matthieu Jalibert and Gael Fickou had Scotland in trouble. When they moved it right, Antoine Dupont, the wee wizard that he is, put in the most sumptuous cross-field kick for Penaud to score. Jalibert then rifled over the conversion to put France ahead.
