Match Centre: Scotland 25-21 France

Scotland 25-21 France, Murrayfield

Scotland came down from a 18-point deficit as they stunned France 25-21 despite losing Zander Fagerson to red card in the Rugby World Cup warm-up game at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Gregor Townsend named an experimental side with 13 changes from the previous game while Finn Russell was handed the captaincy while France had three debutants in Paul Boudehent, Emilien Gailleton and Bielle-Biarrey.

It took Scotland just four minutes to get their first points as they won a scrum penalty which Russell went on to kick to perfection before the visitors responded back with Emilien Gailleton offloading to Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who in turn sends Couilloud over the line. Matthieu Jalibert kicked the conversion to make it 3-7.

The 24th minute saw the visitors doubled their tally with debutant Bielle-Biarrey finding the gap on the left to touchdown and Jalibert once again got the conversion right to make it 3-14.

Scotland thought they narrowed down the gap before the half-time but Duhan Van Der Merwe collapsed near the try line but France increased their lead further as Cameron Woki burst through after a powerful performance by the forwards as they completed the opening half with a 3-21 lead.

Scotland make a brisk start to the second half as Darcy Graham dotted down after collecting a crossfield kick from Russell, who kicked the extras to reduce the gap down to 11 points.

The Dark Blues were down to 14 players by the 51st minute as Zander Fagerson was initially yellow carded for entering the ruck late and making head-on-face contact with Pierre Bourgarit. The card was upgraded to red after consulting with a TMO.

Despite being a player down, Scotland went on the attack with Pierre Schoeman crossing over after good work from Graham and Russell's conversion made it 17-21. The home side went into the lead as replacement Dave Cherry pushed himself over the line but Russell's conversion rebound of the post making it 22-21.

Six minutes later, Russell kicked his second penalty goal to take them to a four-point lead which they managed to hold on in the closing stage.

Team line up:

Scotland: 15-Blair Kinghorn, 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Sione Tuipulotu, 11-Duhan Van Der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell (c), 9-Ben White; 8-Pierre Schoeman, 7-Ewan Ashman, 6-Zander Fagerson, 5-Richie Gray, 4-Grant Gilchrist, 3-Matt Fagerson, 2-Hamish Watson, 1-Jack Dempsey.

Reserves: 16-Dave Cherry, 17-Jamie Bhatti, 18-WP Nel, 19-Scott Cummings, 20-Rory Darge, 21-George Horne, 22-Cameron Redpath, 23-Ollie Smith

France:15-Brice Dulin (c), 14-Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 13-Emilien Gailleton, 12-Yoram Moefana, 11-Ethan Dumortier, 10-Matthieu Jalibert, 9-Baptiste Couilloud, 8-Yoan Tanga, 7- Sekou Macalou, 6-Paul Boudehent, 5-Bastien Chalureau, 4-Cameron Woki, 3-Demba Bamba, 2-Pierre Bourgarit, 1-Jean-Baptiste Gros

Reserves: 16- Peato Mauvaka, 17-Reda Wardi, 18-Sipili Falatea, 19-Paul Willemse, 20-Dylan Cretin, 21-Baptiste Serin, 22-Antoine Hastoy, 23-Arthur Vincent