Two-try Bastareaud sets up France 6N win

TWO-TRIES: Mathieu Bastareaud crosses for one his two tries in France's opening Six Nations win over Scotland.

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France continued their domination of Scotland as two tries for centre Mathieu Bastareaud and two penalties and a conversion by Morgan Parra gave them an 18-9 win in their Six Nations opener.

France delivered a solid performance up front and, through powerful centre Bastareaud, took their chances when they arrived.

Bastareaud was sent home in disgrace from France's tour to New Zealand last year after claiming he had been assaulted in the street before later admitting he had sustained his injuries while falling over after drinking in his hotel.

The victory puts them in good heart for next week's potentially pivotal Paris clash with champions Ireland.

"We're very happy to win today. The Scotland team has a big heart and it's always a tough match to come here," France number eight and man of the match Imanol Harinordoquy told the BBC.

"We knew we had to have a big performance from the forwards, and we won the match in the scrum and the fight."

Scotland, with only once victory over the French this century, worked hard to stay in the game but rarely threatened a try and will try to regroup for their trip to Cardiff, also on Feb. 13.

"If we concede two tries against France, we're not going to beat anyone," said Scotland coach Andy Robinson, taking charge of the team in the Six Nations for the first time.

"We were under pressure against a good French scrum and they were very canny in what they did but we are finding our way.

"We had a number of chances and didn't take them. France took theirs and that's the difference at this level."

France showed their intent from the kick-off with a huge hit on Kelly Brown but it was the tackler Aurelien Rougerie suffered a knock himself minutes later and had to go off.

France had the early pressure but Scotland then went on the attack and earned a penalty that Chris Paterson landed.

From the restart France threatened again, this time replacement Vincent Clerc chipping and collecting only for effort to be thwarted by a tap tackle by Brown and the try-saving strength of Thom Evans who turned Clerc onto his back.

But it only delayed a French try as from a scrum five metres out France attacked off the base and two powerful drives by Harinordoquy sucked in the home defence to allow Bastareaud to score on the overlap.

A penalty apiece by Paterson and Morgan Parra kept the margin of at two points but when France won a turnover and swept the ball left to Bastareaud, the powerhouse had little problem in scoring his second try, Parra converting for a 15-6 lead.

The gap widened just after the break with a second penalty by Parra but again Paterson added points for Scotland with his third success to trim the lead to nine.

France came close to scoring through their forwards with a series of scrums close to the Scotland line but the Scots, heavily under pressure in the front row held out.

The French backs showed further glimpses of their finger-tip passing but for the most part the second half became a slog with France's first-half efforts proving decisive.

- Reuters