Teenager Romain Ntamack finishes off sensational try for France
There was a lot of question marks hanging over the French selection for this Test against Scotland in the Six Nations. Mixing things up, Jacques Brunel selected young talents in key playmaking positions, with Antoine Dupont (22) at nine, Romain Ntamack (19) at ten and Thomas Ramos (23) at 15.
And it was the young Toulouse full-back who sparked a moment of brilliance which eventually led to a try for Ntamack. The young stars would prove key in a 25-10, bonus-point win over Scotland.
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This cracker began with the 15 fielding a Greig Laidlaw kick inside his 22, the 15 dummied a kick of his own, only to step inside. Wrong-footing Sean Maitland, he then ghosted past Pete Horne, Jamie Ritchie and Grant Gilchrist. Passing to Damian Penaud, the whole team were travelling at speed.
Penaud slung a pass inside to Dupont who scampered within sight of the posts. Nick Grigg slid in to pull him down but Ramos was on hand again to feed the teenage ten, who duly scored. To round things off Ramos converted the try, too.
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It was a fluent and fun play to start the scoring for this Test and France wouldn’t stop there. They continually poured forward against the Scots.
In control: Thomas Ramos claims a kick against Scotland (AFP/Getty Images)
Ntamack played a cute chip for an on-running Gael Fickou to score a try that was eventually disallowed due to a Wenceslas Lauret knock-on earlier.
And at thee very start of the second half Yoann Huget scored a try in the bottom corner after Mathieu Bastareaud of all people took the ball in midfield, chipped over the top and regathering himself.
By the hour mark, Ramos, Huget and Dupont had all run over 50m each with ball in hand. And Penaud and Fickou were not far behind, either. In fact the French finished with three scores disallowed, two of which were finished off by the unlucky Fickou.
France were not scared to run all game and that sense of adventure lived to the last, with Gregory Aldritt scoring the fourth and final try – his second of the day – a few minutes into added time.