France 23-27 Scotland: Campaign feels like 'one of Scotland's best-ever' - Gregor Townsend
- Published
Scotland's Six Nations campaign feels like "one of our best-ever seasons" said head coach Gregor Townsend after they beat France in Paris, their first win there since 1999.
Duhan van der Merwe's last-gasp try snatched a 27-23 victory for 14-man Scotland, in a campaign where they also beat England at Twickenham.
Scotland finish fourth with Wales winning the championship.
"I'm so proud of the team," Townsend told BBC Sport.
"They came here with a bit of adversity with not our full squad, an injury to one of our starters on Wednesday, a yellow card, a red card, we had to come back against a very good side, but they showed courage, effort, togetherness, and skill to win. A great end to a really promising season for us.
"Even though we finished fourth, it feels like one of our best-ever seasons with the victories we've had this year and the performances tonight especially.
"That's now been the last two years we've been competitive in every game. We've grown a lot this year, grown a lot this campaign, and we've got to continue to grow over the next few years."
The win wrecked France's hopes of winning the Six Nations. The hosts needed a bonus point and a winning margin of 21 points to pip Wales to the trophy.
Scotland captain Stuart Hogg was yellow carded and Finn Russell was shown a late red, but four minutes after the regulation time intense late pressure was rewarded with the winning try.
Ultimately, Scotland's own hopes of winning the Six Nations were destroyed by home losses to Ireland and Wales.
Hogg said: "Results at times have been outstanding, the performance at times have been very good, but we're probably going to be kicking ourselves with some of the losses.
"We're not going to get carried away, we're going to enjoy this moment and start building towards something memorable.
"I'm the captain of a very, very proud nation and we'll continue to work hard."