Six Nations: Scotland stun France to gift title to Wayne Pivac's Wales

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac and Dan Biggar celebrate after the side's defeat of England in February. Photo / Photosport

France gifted Scotland a last-gasp try to lose 27-23 and hand Wales the Six Nations title on Saturday.

France had the match in hand, up 23-20 in injury time, but fullback Brice Dulin bizarrely decided not to kick the ball into touch with victory assured if he did.

The Scots exerted huge pressure over 22 phases, and left winger Duhan van der Merwe swept into the left corner in the 85th minute for his second try of the night and secured Scotland's first Paris triumph since 1999.

Eleven years after last winning the tournament, France needed a four-try bonus point win and a 21-point margin of victory in the tournament finale in an empty Stade de France.

The French did get three tries, but they also gifted points and possession and ended up second again, just like last year.

France stopped Wales from winning the Grand Slam last weekend with its own last-gasp winning try — ironically to Dulin — at the Stade de France but Wayne Pivac's revitalised unit still ended up winning a second title in three years.

Pivac - who formerly had stints leading Fiji, Auckland and North Harbour - told The Telegraph that the result today made up for last weekend's crushing disappointment.

"We're over the moon and very very happy to have won the Championship," said Pivac, "it's just a shame we couldn't have done it as a group last week.

"We don't want to talk too much about that but we felt we had done quite a bit in that game to have won it. It wasn't to be, but it certainly doesn't take anything away from the fact that a lot of hard work has been done and we've won the tournament.

"The Scotland win reminded me a lot of our game against France, with cards and people coming and going. It had everything and it was a great game to watch."

Given that Wales finished in fifth place in last year's Six Nations and won only three Test matches in the whole of 2020, their triumph this year caps off a remarkable turnaround for Pivac's side.

"We're happy with how things are going in our camp and we've built nicely through the competition. It's been a great period for [Scotland coach] Gregor [Townsend] since the World Cup – I'd like to congratulate him on that performance which has helped us win the Championship."

Scotland's Stuart Hogg (C) celebrates his side's thrilling victory over France. Photo / AP

Another tense contest on Saturday finished with 14 players on each side for the closing stages.

Scotland first five Finn Russell was red-carded and replacement halfback Baptiste Serin was sin-binned moments later for messing up Scotland's maul.

The cards came too late to make a serious difference to where the title ended up.

But coach Gregor Townsend's enterprising Scotland deserved the win against a French side affected by the weight of positive expectation, and which reverted back to the sloppy mistakes of recent years.