Scots keen to block out external noise and party atmosphere in Paris as they aim to cause a shock
Scotland will need key men like Blair Kinghorn firing if they are to win in Paris on Saturday
©Bryan Robertson Photography
Scotland assistant coach Steve Tandy wants his players to block out all the external noise this weekend when they head into the Stade de France cauldron.
Their clash with Les Bleus on Saturday is the final act of the Guinness Six Nations with France heavy favourites to seal the title for the first time since 2022.
Fabien Galthié's side know a bonus-point win would see them crowned champions and with it being a 9pm kick-off local time in front of an 80,000 raucous crowd, the odds may be stacked against a Scottish upset.
Whilst Scotland have had some recent near misses against France, they did win in Paris (albeit in front of no crowd during the pandemic) in 2021 and they do have the attacking firepower to hurt the French if they get other parts of their game right.
In terms of most pundits believing that France are in for a comfortable win, Tandy told TRU: “I don’t think it bothers me what other people are thinking.
“We’ve got our own internal standards. We've got our own internal belief of how we play the game and how we go after opposition and we’ll stick to that.
“It’s an exciting one. France probably could have blown England away and they've most recently done an unbelievable job out in Ireland so we know exactly what firepower they bring, but we've got our own way of playing and know how we're going to go about it in France.
“It’s just an exciting opportunity. It's always an incredible atmosphere there and in the past, we've done pretty well against France. We want the players to enjoy being in the last game of the Six Nations.
“I think in terms of the way we play, there's a real good attacking mindset. France are a brilliant team, but again, if we perform at the best level of what we can do, we'll create opportunities for ourselves as well whether it be with or without the ball.
“France can offload and they've got an amazing kicking game, but a bounce of the ball or we get our bits right in what we can do, then we're certain there'll be opportunities for us at the weekend.”
‘We need something close to an 80-minute performance to get what we want’
Scotland go into their final Six Nations match of 2025 sitting fourth after two wins and two losses.
In their most recent win over Wales, Scotland were 35-8 up early in the second period and had the bonus point in the bag before dropping off drastically and eventually getting over the line 35-29.
They know that they cannot afford to play for just 50 minutes or so this weekend against a team like France in their own backyard and Welshman Tandy, a defensive expert, added: “There was probably frustration at the end of the Wales game in the way it finished for us.
“But, ultimately, you've got to check yourself, you've still won with a bonus point. Probably for me personally there was a bit of frustration, but then when you actually reflect and you watch the game in the light of day and you watch it from minute 0 to 80, there are lots to like about it.
“However, you're always striving for that 80-minute performance and it wasn't quite that on the weekend. We go back, we look at it, and we know where we're going on the weekend that we need something close to an 80-minute performance to get what we want.
“So there was lots to like in the Wales game, but there's no way in and around our group we're going to hide behind the fact that there were still things that we probably left on the table on both sides of the ball.
“In terms of defensively, the last 20 minutes or so as Wales came back into things, I think there's little bits of detail. I don't think it was massive issues.
“At one point we were trying to score more points which is a great attitude to have and then they go the length of field and probably that's too cheap for us.
“It doesn't matter whether it's minute one or the 83rd minute, that was definitely cheap and we were looking around those start points and what that looks like.
“For 60 minutes, I thought we controlled the game and defensively I thought we were really good in that period, but we're always disappointed when we concede one try, let alone four, in a game and that last 20-minute period is something that we know that doesn't reflect where we feel we are defensively as a squad."
