Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend admitted he was bemused by the choice to not improve France’s Peato Mauvaka’s yellow card to a crimson after his headbutt on Ben White of their Six Nations Tremendous Saturday conflict.
France regained the Six Nations title for the primary time in three years with a 35-16 victory over Scotland in Paris, Les Bleus proving too robust in the long run as three second-half tries noticed them decide up their second championship of the Fabien Galthie period.
Though that emphatic second-half surge noticed them romp to the title, the primary half was a lot nearer and France solely led 16-13 on the break because of Yoram Moefana’s strive.
In addition they might simply have trailed and been decreased to 14 gamers had Tom Jordan’s disallowed strive stood and hooker Mauvaka been despatched off for the blatant headbutt on White on the twentieth minute.
Certainly, the sending of Mauvaka to the sin bin noticed the tide begin to flip with Finn Russell slotting the ensuing penalty from shut vary to get the guests up and working on the scoreboard.
For Townsend, there was no rationale behind not upgrading the cardboard contemplating White “got collided in the head”
“Well the decision not to raise it to a red card was because there was not excessive force,” stated Townsend.
“I’m not sure that’s really the criteria for a non-tackle incident. It clearly was a non-tackle incident, it was after the whistle. So, if there was head contact and that was intentional, it shouldn’t be anything to do with the force that was involved.
“I really feel sorry for Ben White right here, as a result of he did nothing. He was initially pushed to the bottom, and a push is nothing in rugby, after which he bought collided within the head, so I do not know the way it wasn’t raised to a crimson card.
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England head coach Steve Borthwick believes his gamers have acknowledged an enormous declare for British and Irish Lions choice and may see Ben Earl having a future within the centre.
Nevertheless, Townsend did concede that France have been worthy winners of the 2025 title.
“But whether that has had anything to do with the final result, who knows, because France deserved the win, deserve to be champions, they’re a quality side,” he stated.
“Even though we played really well at times tonight, France were the better team in the end.”
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