Scotland v France, Six Nations Championship, February 7
France out to preserve winning run
John Griffiths
February 1, 2010
Fulgence Ouedraogo scored a controversial try to defeat Scotland in 2009
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The overall series record since 1910, when the sides first met, at Inverleth in Edinburgh, reads: played 82; Scotland won 34, France 45 and three games (in 1922, 1966 and 1987 at the inaugural Rugby World Cup) have been drawn. France has won 10 of the last 11 matches, including a record run of seven in a row between 2000 and 2005. France prevailed last season thanks to a controversial try by flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo in their 22-13 win in Paris. The records for the highest score and best win are held by France, who won 51-9 in Sydney in a Rugby World Cup pool match in 2003. France also won 51-16 at Murrayfield in 1998. Scotland's highest score was 36-22 in the 1999 Paris win that clinched the last ever Five Nations title. Their biggest margin of victory stands as the 31-3 win in 1912 when French rugby was in its infancy. The record individual score for a match in this series was established by Frederic Michalak in the 2003 World Cup pool game when he scored 28 in Sydney. He finished with a full-house of scoring actions: try, four conversions, four penalty goals and a dropped goal. The scoring record for Scotland was set by Michael Dods with 19 points at Murrayfield in 1996. The legendary Flying Scot, Ian Smith, is the only player who has crossed for four tries in a match. He did so in 1925 in a 25-4 victory during Scotland's first Grand Slam season. That match was the last-ever international staged at Inverleith. The only French try hat-trick was scored by wing Eric Bonneval in Paris in 1987. Some of the game's household names head the lists of overall records for the series. Philippe Sella appeared 14 times in the series between 1981 and 1995 (Jim Renwick played a dozen times for Scotland), Gavin Hastings scored 116 points in eleven games between 1986 and 1995 (Serge Blanco and Christophe Lamaison share the corresponding French record on 42 points) and the famous Scottish wings in the all-Oxford threequarter line of the 1920s, "Johnnie" Wallace and Ian Smith, each rattled up six tries. Blanco scored five tries for France.
Scotland-France Six Nations results:
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