Baptiste Couilloud, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, and Cameron Woki crossed at Murrayfield for France, which sprinted to a 21-3 lead at the half.
Following the removal of Fagerson, the Scots scored tries from Dave Cherry, Darcy Graham, and Pierre Schoeman.
With 10 points from his kicks, captain Finn Russell led the home team to a thrilling victory.
Next Saturday’s match will be the third of Scotland’s four World Cup warm-up games, and it will take place at St. Etienne.
Gregor Townsend decided to field a strong team for the World Cup hosts’ visit after defeating Italy last weekend with a shadow lineup, with captain Jamie Ritchie the sole noticeable absence due to injury.
Russell took charge of Scotland for the first time on his 70th appearance, and he quickly put his team ahead with a penalty.
Antoine Dupont, France’s great scrum-half, was unavailable due to injury, but Couilloud filled in admirably and completed a remarkable counterattack from inside French territory to score the game’s first try against Scotland.
Les Bleus nonetheless carried threats around the field of play albeit without a large number of their key players. Bielle-Biarrey came off his flank to make the extra man out wide and glide across in the corner while the Scots were battling to contain the speed of the French ball.
At 14-3, the home team already appeared to be facing an uphill battle. On the half-hour mark, the worrisome sight of Ben White walking off with an injury emerged.
Townsend will be hoping White’s chances of making the World Cup are not jeopardized because he has swiftly established himself as a key member of the team this season.
Scotland was finding it difficult to leave a mark during an onslaught. When the Scots had any possession at all, it was always slow because the ball bearers were failing to gain yards. With the addition of a few shaky line-outs, the France defense had a fairly relaxing afternoon.
The Scots were in danger of suffering the psychological blow of a humiliating home loss when Woki blasted in from close range, and even if a warm-up game by definition does not carry the greatest stakes.
To to one’s surprise, Graham, their tiny try machine on the wing, provided the urgently needed solution to stop the tide.
Graham made a wonderful move to dive in front of Ethan Dumortier and catch the ball with his fingertips as Russell shanked a beautiful kick over the defense into the dead-ball area.Scotland was starting to gain ground, and although Fagerson’s yellow card for a reckless clearout at a ruck temporarily halted their progress, Schoeman, Fagerson’s front-row partner, used all of his immense strength to force Scotland over the finish line.
The celebration at Murrayfield, however, was short-lived as the new “Bunker” technology was used by the television match official to assess Fagerson’s yellow card, which was then changed to a red.
The coaching staff for Scotland will have some restless nights before Fagerson appears before the disciplinary panel because to the lack of options at tighthead.Despite being down a player, the Scots had managed to reclaim control of the game from the French. Blair Kinghorn appeared to have given Scotland the lead when he sprinted past Brice Dulin to score, but the try was disallowed due to Graham’s previous knock-on.
The French were now having trouble handling the intensity that had replaced the first half’s meekness, and a rolling maul that powered over the line allowed Cherry to touch down and give Scotland its first lead since the game’s beginning.
Russell consistently made excellent kicks off the tee, and his penalty increased Scotland’s lead to four. Scotland put everything they had into fending off the French’s late onslaught as they sensed the game was about to go their way until Rory Darge pounced for a superb turnover to secure the victory.
22 unanswered points clinched a victory that should give the Scots a major confidence boost moving into their difficult World Cup pool after they were facing a crushing setback.
The Scots will leave the tournament early if they repeat their first-half performance. If you repeat the second, any team will find them difficult to handle.
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