Paris - Left wing Noa Nakaitaci scored a late try as France rallied to beat Scotland 19-16 (half-time 6-9) in their last warm-up match ahead of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday.
Scotland grabbed a try against the run of play 20 minutes from the end to lead 16-12, with scrumhalf Greig Laidlaw chipping a long kick into space for wing Tommy Seymour to gather and score in the right corner.
But after No 8 David Denton was sin-binned 10 minutes from the end, relentless French pressure paid off in the 75th minute as Fijian-born Nakaitaci broke two tackles before going over, with replacement scrumhalf Morgan Parra adding the extras.
Scorers:
France:
Try: Noa Nakaitaci
Conversion: Morgan Parra
Penalties: Frédéric Michalak (3), Scott Spedding
Scotland:
Try: Tommy Seymour
Conversion: Greig Laidlaw
Penalties: Laidlaw (3)
Teams:
France:
15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Frédéric Michalak, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Damien Chouly, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Alexandre Flanquart, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.
Substitutes: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Nicolas Mas, 19 Bernard le Roux, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Rémi Talès, 23 Alexandre Dumoulin
Scotland:
15 Sean Maitland, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 David Denton, 7 John Hardie, 6 Ryan Wilson, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Willem Nel, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Alasdair Dickinson
Substitutes: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Alasdair Strokosch, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Sean Lamont