VIDEO. 6 Nations Tournament 2024: the Blue were hot in Scotland but remain in the race for a Grand Slam

Les Bleues de Ménager l'ont emporté difficilement en Ecosse. MAXPPP – Brett Phibbs

The French women's 6 nations.

The week of rest which now awaits the French, whose next meeting will take them on April 14 to Paris against Italy, will not be too much to analyze this very worrying meeting for the rest of the competition.

It is imperative that the Blues, very poor in Scotland, raise their level of play at Jean-Bouin, because they were too penalized, too imprecise and incapable of stringing together effective sequences of play. How can we imagine that last year in Vannes, the French had crushed the Scottish women 55 to 0 ?

But since then, the XV du Chardon has definitely progressed: in the fall, they won level two of the "WXV", the new competition created by World Rugby to help raise the level of women's rugby.

🏉 #SixNationsRugby | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⚡🇨🇵 𝗟𝗮 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀'𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗲𝗻 𝗘́𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲 !

✅ Que ce fut dur, mais les Bleues inscrivent un deuxième essai synonyme de victoire grâce à Émeline Gros ! Deuxième succès en deux matchs dans ce Tournoi 2024. pic.twitter.com/xnWAxLw1MW

— francetvsport (@francetvsport) March 30, 2024

Clumsy French Women

And last weekend, Scotland won a historic victory in Cardiff (20-18), its seventh in a row but above all its first on Welsh soil for 20 years, which allowed it to to climb to sixth  place in the world rankings for the first time in its history.

During the first period, under a beautiful spring sun but with a strong wind, the Scots showed off their solid defense, which greatly hampered the XV of France, also author of ' damaging hand errors.

Clothed in white, the Tricolors, clumsy, even feverish, may have camped in the Scottish camp, but they did not succeed in putting their game in place, nor in concretizing their territorial domination .

One last try on the mermaid

And it is almost logical that the first try was scored by Scottish hooker Elis Martin, on a carried ball, a few minutes before half-time (5-3, 35th). Returning from the locker room, the French continued their inaccuracies, manhandled on all sides, particularly on the sidelines, by confident opponents.

It was only in the 52nd minute that the young Blue winger Kelly Arbey, for her second selection, finally went to flatten behind the goal Scottish, to give some fresh air to her teammates (5-8) but without really reassuring. And it was not a second try, scored on the siren by the French third line Emeline Gros, which dispelled the doubts.