VETERAN FULLBACK Maxime Medard scored twice as France hammered Scotland 32-3 in tonight’s World Cup warm-up in Nice.
32-year-old Medard dotted down either side of the break for his first tries in more than three years, as Gregor Townsend’s side — Ireland’s opening World Cup opponents — suffered a big loss in their first warm-up outing.
Prop Jefferson Poirot led Les Bleus for the first time in the absence of injured Guillem Guirado as Fijian-born winger Alivereti Raka and flanker Francois Cros made their debuts in the starting lineup.
Townsend chose to rest first-choice half-backs Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw and put his faith in Glasgow pair Adam Hastings and Ali Price.
Raka celebrated his first cap with a maiden Test try after just 94 seconds as he crashed over under the posts.
Camille Lopez converted before adding his only penalty after a quarter of an hour.
Les Bleus’ second try came from further pressure inside the Scottish 22.
Lopez found himself in space out wide before feeding Damian Penaud who passed to Medard for his first try in international rugby since February 2016.
The out-half missed the extras before his opponent in the visitors’ number 10 shirt Hastings claimed his side’s first and only points with a penalty after 26 minutes.
Hastings turned villain seven minutes later as he was shown a yellow card and Les Bleus chose to kick to the corner.
France scored their third try as Gregory Alldritt, who has a Scottish father, made the most of a driving maul to dive over with five minutes of the half remaining and the host led 20-3.
After a slow opening quarter of an hour to the final 40 minutes, France crossed for their fourth try.
Medard added his second of the match after good work from Cros and scrum-half Antoine Dupont.
Dupont became the recipient five minutes later for his second try in 15 Tests after a superb slaloming run from Damian Penaud and France led 32-3 with half an hour to play.
The two teams face each other again in Edinburgh next Saturday before France host Italy on 30 August.
Scotland have back-to-back Tests against Georgia after the match in Edinburgh before that showdown with Schmidt’s Ireland in Japan.
Meanwhile, captain Sergio Parisse touched down on his return as Italy ran in 13 tries for a 85-15 victory over Russia in their second World Cup warm-up clash in San Benedetto del Tronto on Saturday.
The veteran Azzurri skipper did not feature in last Saturday’s 29-10 defeat to Ireland at the Aviva, but came into the side as one of 14 changes made by Conor O’Shea.
The 35-year-old, who earned his 139th international cap, dotted down the second try as the Italians ran in five in the first half adding a further eight after the break to inflict a record defeat on the Russians.
Who will be on the plane to Japan? Bernard Jackman joins Murray and Gavan to map out the Irish depth chart. We also rank the best national anthems, and Murray sits down with Peter O’Mahony.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
