Preview: Scotland vs. France - prediction team news, lineups

Scotland welcome France to Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon for the penultimate round of this year's Six Nations Championships.

Gregor Townsend's men came from behind to beat Wales 26-23 in their previous outing, while Fabien Galthie's side cruised to a 33-8 win against Italy in Lille.

Match preview

Since losing in Rome on the opening weekend, Scotland have revived their dreams of a first ever Six Nations crown, beating England and Wales in consecutive matches.

After finding themselves trailing by 15 points with 50 minutes on the clock, Townsend's men did well to fight back and claim a bonus-point victory in Cardiff, however start their match against France in the same manner this weekend and the contest could quickly pass them by.

The hosts have lost their previous four matches against France, who are a force to be reckoned with this year and last beat Saturday's opponents in 2021 courtesy of a last-gasp Duhan van der Merwe try at the Stade de France.

However, if they were to halt that streak by claiming a bonus-point victory and leaving no scraps for their opponents, Scotland would rise to the top of the table ahead of their almighty trip to Dublin in the final round.

© Iconsport / Zuma

Chasing back-to-back Six Nations Championships for the first time since 2007, France have looked by far and away the strongest side in the competition this year.

Galthie's men have swept past Ireland, Wales and Italy with relative ease so far, picking up the maximum of 15 points and have scored an incredible 18 tries in the process.

Having travelled to Wales already, Saturday's match is the visitors' final away game of the tournament and if they were to win against Scotland, France would have the chance to win the grand slam in Le Crunch against England next week at the Stade de France, replicating their convincing 2022 tournament triumph.

Going into this weekend's game, France boast a great recent record against their hosts and ran out comfortable 35-16 winners when the sides met in Paris last year.

Scotland Six Nations form:

Scotland form (all competitions):

France Six Nations form:

France form (all competitions):

Team News

© Iconsport / PA Images

Scotland have completely replaced the front row that started against Wales, with Nathan McBeth, Dave Cherry and Zander Fagerson making way for Pierre Schoeman, George Turner and D'Arcy Rae.

In the rest of the pack, Max Williamson is replaced by Jack Dempsey as the latter starts on the back row and Matt Fagerson is shifted to blind-side flanker.

The hosts remain much the same across the backline, however they do make one change as Darcy Graham comes in for van der Merwe.

Although the remainder of their scrum remains unchanged, France have rotated the second row that started against Italy at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy a fortnight ago as Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou are replaced by Charles Ollivon and Mickael Guillard.

The only difference to their backline comes in the centre as Fabien Brau-Boirie and Emilien Gailleton make way for Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortere.

Scotland starting lineup: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Kyle Steyn, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 George Turner, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 4 Gregor Brown, 5 Scott Cummings, 6 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 8 Jack Dempsey

Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Josh Bayliss, 22 George Horne, 23 Tom Jordan

France starting lineup: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Nicolas Depoortere, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 4 Charles Ollivon, 5 Mickael Guillard, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Oscar Jegou, 8 Anthony Jelonch

Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Thibaud Flament, 20 Emmanuel Meafou, 21 Lenni Nouchi, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Pierre-Louis Barassi

We say: Scotland 15-22 France

Although they have been dominant so far in this year's competition, France arguably face their toughest test yet this weekend as visit a resurgent Scotland side that will no doubt have Murrayfield bouncing ahead of kick off.

However, even though we think it will be tight, closing in on the grand slam it is difficult to see the hosts stopping France from playing for perfection against England in Paris next weekend.