France win the 2025 Six Nations following victory over Scotland in Paris. Photo: AFP
France claimed their seventh Six Nations trophy in a record-strewn 35-16 victory over Scotland, shaking off their beautiful runners-up tag on a crisp evening at the Stade de France.
Les Bleus matched England's number of titles since Italy joined the championship in 2000 and did so in style, scoring 30 tries in a pulsating campaign to make sure they would not end up runners-up for the fifth time in six years.
Their only defeat came against England at Twickenham but Fabien Galthie's side put that 26-25 loss behind them by humiliating Italy before crushing Ireland despite losing their talismanic captain Antoine Dupont through injury.
The hosts turned on the gas after the interval on Saturday, and prevailed through tries by Yoram Moefana (2), Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Thomas Ramos, who kicked the other points to become came France's all-time record points scorer.
Scotland made a game of it and scored a try through Darcy Graham with Finn Russell kicking their other points.
France, who gave Galthie his second title after the 2022 Six Nations since he took charge in 2020, finished on 21 points with England second.
It was party time at the Stade de France but Les Bleus only really got into their groove after the break, relying again on forward power to finish off a combative but limited Scotland team.
Dupont, who ruptured his ACL against Ireland, stayed with the squad and the mercurial scrumhalf received the loudest cheers as he watched from the stands.
Good start
France started well.
Gael Fickou tore through the middle and set up fellow centre Moefana for a try between the posts while Scotland were down to 14 after Jamie Ritchie was shown a yellow card.
France, however, suffered a blow when Peato Mauvaka was sin-binned for head-butting Ben White and the hooker look relieved when he heard the sanction was not upgraded to a red card.
Ramos slotted a penalty from under the sticks to beat Frederic Michalak's record of 436 points scored for France and give them a 13-3 lead. He now has 450 to his name.
The visitors reduced the arrears when Graham touched down after collecting Russell's inside ball. The flyhalf converted and added a penalty to level the scores as French prop Jean-Baptiste Gros was sent off for 10 minutes.
Ramos, however, restored a slim advantage with a penalty on the stroke of halftime before giving away possession with a poor kick.
Scotland's Tom Jordan went over after a superb Blair Kinghorn break but the try was ruled out by the TMO as the fullback was ruled to be in touch.
Bielle-Biarrey scored a championship record eighth try in a single campaign after being set up by Romain Ntamack who had sprinted through the defence.
Then came the bomb squad as Galthie sent five forwards on from the bench and Scotland cracked.
Ramos crossed the whitewash after another devastating rolling maul and Moefana, who bulldozed past Russell after Fickou's offload, claimed the bonus-point try.
Record-breaking England
England produced one of their best performances for years to crush hapless Wales by a record 68-14 scoreline, finishing the Six Nations on a high.
England's Maro Itoje celebrates winning the match Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The visitors ran in 10 tries to easily surpass their previous biggest victory margin in Cardiff, a 43-9 success in a 2003 World Cup warm-up.
"We challenged them to go out and play big and they did exactly that," said coach Steve Borthwick, whose radical team selection was vindicated by a display of impressive power and finishing.
"This has the makings of a very good team, we just need to keep at the process," Borthwick added.
There had been talk around Cardiff of nerves as Wales looked to a succession of historic last-day wins to deny England titles but the mood of optimism disappeared after two minutes when Maro Itoje stretched out a long arm for the first try.
A great pass by Fin Smith set up Tom Roebuck, on his first start, to claim the second after 11 minutes
Wales fullback Blair Murray had a try chalked off and was denied again by a desperate tap-tackle from hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie but Wales did get on the board through centre Ben Thomas.
They made a mess of the restart, however, and England showed terrific handling to send centre Tommy Freeman over. That meant he has scored a try in all five matches in the tournament - the first England player to do so and only the second from any country after France's Philippe Bernat-Salles in 2001.
England were on fire and scored two more tries within two minutes as slick passing and hard running sent Chandler Cunningham-South and, on his 50th appearance, prop Will Stuart over as the visitors reached halftime with a commanding 33-7 lead.
England claimed their fifth try after a Welsh pass bounced off Elliot Daly's head into the path of scrumhalf Alex Mitchell who kicked ahead and scored.
Debutant 20-year-old replacement Henry Pollock flanker got the seventh and Joe Heyes the eighth as the Welsh defence disintegrated.
Thomas grabbed his second try in a brief Welsh flurry but England poured on the power as Pollock and Cunningham-South both claimed second tries and Wales shipped their most points ever at Cardiff, having lost 55-25 to New Zealand in 2022.
"We have been building towards this I feel like each game we were showing a different side to us and we are happy to end like this," England captain Itoje said.
"The thing about consistency is you have to be consistent even when results aren't going your way and I applaud the team because even when they weren't and we were getting outside noise we kept on being consistent.
"Regardless of what France or Scotland do, it doesn't matter. We did our job today."
To the chagrin of the gloomy home fans, "Swing Low" rang around the stadium at fulltime, rubbing in the humiliation on a day and season to forget for a nation who have not won a match since the 2023 World Cup.
Wales captain Jac Morgan, who has been immense in a losing cause all championship, said that England had been clinical.
"It's tough, everyone's gutted but you can't knock the effort and commitment and it will come hopefully," Morgan said.
Ireland pip Italy
Hooker Dan Sheehan scored a hat-trick of tries as champions Ireland laboured to a 22-17 bonus-point victory over hosts Italy.
Ireland’s Dan Sheehan celebrates scoring a try for Ireland. Photo: Photosport
Fullback Hugo Keenan also crossed for a try as Ireland failed to finish numerous other entries into the Italy 22 in a scrappy display that was a last in international rugby for retiring loose-forward Peter O'Mahony and halfback Conor Murray.
Italy played for half an hour with 14 players after yellow cards for Michele Lamaro and Giacomo Nicotera, and a 20-minute red for Ross Vintcent, but managed tries through winger Monty Ioane and scrumhalf Stephen Varney in a spirited end to their campaign.
It was job done for Ireland with their five-point haul, but as with much of this Six Nations campaign under stand-in coach Simon Easterby, the performance was far from convincing.
"Relief is the overriding feeling," Ireland captain Caelan Doris admitted.
"It was a proper battle that went down to the wire. We knew it would be tough, we were ready for it. Right to the last five minutes they tested us.
"You talk about ugly wins and finding a way when things are not going your way and we did that. We got the five points and the rest is out of our hands now."
Italy were much improved on what has gone before in this campaign and will avoid the wooden spoon if Wales do not get two points from their fixture against England.
"We need to be proud of our performance, we were close to the win, we hope next year to be better," Italy centre Juan Ignacio Brex said.
"It was a huge improvement, but the discipline was terrible with the cards. We have to be better."
Italy made the game's first score as first five Paolo Garbisi's perfect grubber kick sat up for Ioane to gather and cross in the corner.
The visitors registered a first score with a simple backline move from a five-metre scrum that sent Keenan over the tryline.
Tommaso Allan's long-range penalty gave Italy the advantage again, but Ireland led 12-10 at halftime as, after Lamaro's deliberate knock-down at a ruck and subsequent yellow card, the visitors mauled their way over for Sheehan to score.
Ireland camped in the Italy 22 at the start of the second period and were rewarded with a second score that was a carbon copy of their first as Sheehan was at the back of a rolling maul.
Vintcent received a yellow card, later upgraded to a 20-minute red on bunker review, for head-on-head contact with Keenan as the replacement flanker was too upright in the tackle.
Sheehan scored his third try when he collected Mack Hansen's tap-back from a Jamison Gibson-Park kick to complete his hat-trick.
Ireland should have been out of sight, but Jack Crowley's three missed conversions kept their hosts in the game.
And when Varney scored Italy's second converted try following a brilliant break from Ange Capuozzo, the gap on the scoreboard was only five points with 18 minutes remaining but Ireland hung on for the win.
- Reuters
