France ‘can see the sun again’ in Six Nations but remain wary of Scotland | Paul Rees

Les Bleus go to Murrayfield with the grand slam in reach and Gaël Fickou says they now have the tools to challenge the best

France have arrived in the danger zone. A team that were treated dismissively by Eddie Jones at the start of the Six Nations, were sublime and sloppy against Italy and showed a depth of character in Cardiff missing from the side for a decade now have the title, and a grand slam, in sight. Expectation has replaced hope.

A young side have not had to wrestle with the demons of the past because, for the majority of the squad, they were in someone else’s nightmare. On Sunday Les Bleus are at Murrayfield, a ground where they have not won for six years, but there are only two survivors from the XV that went down to Greig Laidlaw’s boot two years ago, Virimi Vakatawa, who was on the wing that afternoon, and the recalled prop Jefferson Poirot, while Baptiste Serin is again on the bench.

Scotland: S Hogg (Exeter, capt); S Maitland (Saracens), C Harris (Gloucester), S Johnson (Glasgow), B Kinghorn (Edinburgh); A Hastings (Glasgow), A Price (Glasgow); R Sutherland (Edinburgh), F Brown (Glasgow), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), S Cummings (Glasgow), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), J Ritchie (Edinburgh), H Watson (Edinburgh), N Haining (Edinburgh).