European Championship: Scotland stay top despite loss to France
Last Updated: 31/10/14 11:38pm
Scotland remain on course to clinch the European Championship - and with it a place in the 2016 Four Nations Series - despite going down to a 38-22 defeat to France.
The Bravehearts paid the price for a poor first half at Galashiels that saw them slip 38-6 behind, scrum-half Remy Marginet producing a second consecutive 22-point haul for the French.
However Scotland still top the table on points difference and will be crowned champions unless Ireland beat Wales by more than 40 points in the last match in Wrexham on Sunday.
They scored three converted tries in the last 18 minutes to get within the 17 points they needed to stay alive, meaning France left the field at Netherdale looking like they were the ones to have been beaten.
It was the first rugby league match to be played in the Borders but was heading for a huge anti-climax as Marginet bagged a first-half hat-trick of tries, as well as five goals from seven attempts.
France coach Richard Agar was forced into a late reshuffle when winger Damien Cardace damaged a quad muscle in the warm-up and the visitors were caught napping after only three minutes when loose forward Ben Kavanagh forced his way over from close range for the first try.
Dominated
Skipper Danny Brough added the conversion to make it 6-0, but from then on the visitors dominated the rest of the opening half.
A speculative kick from Theo Fages set up his half-back partner Marginet for the first of his three treble in a devastating 12-minute spell.
Baitieri, Eloi Pelissier and wingers Aurelien Decarnin and Tony Gigot also touched down as Les Tricolours opened up a 32-point lead by the interval in front of a crowd of 1,500.
Scotland were much improved in the second half but they looked to have left themselves too much to do as the score remained unchanged throughout the third quarter.
Centre Ben Hellewell showed a nice turn of pace to pull back a try on 62 minutes and then it was the turn of twin brothers Adam and Johnathan Walker to take centre stage.
Adam barged his way over from close range on 72 minutes and sibling Johnathan took Brough's pass four minutes later to follow him over the line. Brough added the extras on both occasions, leaving the Scots to cling on for the last four minutes.
