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France coach Edwards shrugs off Grand Slam near-miss after Six Nations triumph
France slipped up just once en route to winning the Six Nations title, and defence coach Shaun Edwards shrugged off any disappointment.
France have no reason to be disappointed at not winning the Six Nations with a Grand Slam, so says Shaun Edwards.
Les Bleus sealed their second title in the space of four years as they claimed a 35-16 victory over Scotland at the Stade de France on Saturday.
Victories for Ireland and England earlier in the day had applied the pressure, but France got the job done.
Thomas Ramos was on point with the boot as he made history for France, while he also scored a try, adding to a double from Yoram Moefana and a record-breaking effort from Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
France's only blemish throughout this year's edition of the Six Nations came in a loss to England at Twickenham, but defence coach Edwards sees no reason to be downbeat at missing out on the Grand Slam.
"I feel just as happy as if it was a Grand Slam because it shows we had great resilience to come back from losing a game," Edwards told ITV Sport.
Edwards was celebrating his 250th international match as a coach.
"The stars aligned for me tonight," he said.
"We showed resilience in defence second half, when we only conceded three points.
"We defended really well against Ireland but kind of went off it for the last five minutes, but today we were on it for the full 80."
Your final table! France are the Guinness Men's Six Nations champions for 2025! #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/ranTqsEDWR
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 15, 2025
Bielle-Biarrey was one of the stars of the show as France took the match away from Scotland in the second half, with his eighth try of the tournament making him the highest-scoring player in a single edition of the Six Nations.
"Since the World Cup in 2023 he has gotten better and better, and hopefully he gets better again. He is a sensational athlete, a wonderful guy," Edwards added of Bielle-Biarrey, who is just the third player to have scored in every round of a single Six Nations, after fellow Frenchman Philippe Bernat-Salles in 2001 and England's Tommy Freeman this year.
France had to get over the line without injured captain Antoine Dupont, but Ramos turned in a stellar performance, finishing with 20 points – one try, three conversions and three successful penalties.
That brings his total to 450 in Test rugby, seeing him overtake Frederic Michalak (436) as France's all-time top points scorer.
Ramos also finished as the top points scorer in the Six Nations (71) for a third straight year, becoming just the second player to achieve that feat after Ronan O'Gara (2005-07).
"It was a very tough game, Scotland is a big team and I want to say thank you to the team because we were fighting with Scotland from start to finish. It's amazing," said Moefana.
"We are happy on the field and play our game. We want to take the pressure and go for tries."
Tonight's #Guinness Player of the Match, @FranceRugby's Yoram Moefana #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/fHJ9EBeyxh
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 15, 2025
France have now won seven Six Nations titles, matching England's record.
Scotland, meanwhile, have lost 12 of their 13 away games against France in the Six Nations, though head coach Gregor Townsend says his team, who had a try disallowed on the stroke of half-time, have plenty to be proud of.
"We asked the players to deliver a performance of effort and physicality and they did that," Townsend said.
"Our forwards played outstanding rugby at times, really fronted up.
"We didn't get the breaks, the bad luck before half-time [with a disallowed try] and then a mistake and they scored just after half-time. We were in that game for a lot of it.
"We were a bum cheek away from converting in the first half when Blair Kinghorn was just in touch and they are a very good defence. You need to have patience and accuracy and that was little bit missing."
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