Women’s Six Nations: Scotland 13-13 France

Rachel Shankland scored a late try on her Scotland debut to help earn a dramatic Women’s Six Nations draw with France.

Unconverted tries from Safi N’Diaye and Agathe Sochat moved France into a 13-3 lead early in the second half.

But Helen Nelson landed her second penalty and added the conversion following Shankland’s score.

Jade Konkel set up the 73rd-minute try, with Shankland racing in to finish, ending a sequence of defeats against France that had been running since 2011.

The French had been hampered by going down to 14 players after using all their replacements and then losing a player to injury.

But, in head coach Brian Easson’s first match since taking over from Philip Doyle in August, the Scots were aggressive and well-organised and will now go into the remaining matches away to Wales and Italy in good spirits, as they seek a first win in the competition since 2018.

“I’m extremely proud of them,” said Easson.

“Defensively I thought they were outstanding. I thought the work-rate and the pressure they put France under was excellent. France made a lot of mistakes and there will be ‘France didn’t perform particularly well’. We didn’t allow France to perform particularly well.”