Scotland have been building for this - we have Six Nations momentum, says Sione Tuipulotu

It was an astonishing game, with the Scots outscoring the visitors by seven tries to six in one of their finest performances of the professional era. At one stage Scotland led 47-14.

Tuipulotu, the Scotland captain, expressed pride in his team who have now won three games in a row since losing to Italy in Rome in round one and urged them to do “one more job”.

They are level with France at the top of the standings but the French have a points differential which is 58 points better than Scotland’s.

The outcome of the championship will be decided next Saturday, with Scotland playing third-placed Ireland in Dublin in the early game before France host England in Paris at 8pm.

For the Scots, it is uncharted territory. They have never before gone into the final day with a chance of the title since it became the Six Nations in 2000.

“We've given ourselves an opportunity,” said Tuipulotu. “It's something a Scotland team hasn't done before, going into the last week with everything to play for. And I think I credit the other leaders as well. The way that we've attacked these Six Nations mentally is just one week at a time, truly.

“I know it's easy to say that but that's really how we've attacked it. That was forced upon us a little bit after the Italy week but the way the leaders have just kept our feet on the ground week after week, it's no different this week. We’ll keep our feet on the ground. We know it's a good win for us and we'll take the confidence from it and just get back to the training field.”

Wingers Kyle Steyn and Darcy Graham both scored doubles and there were also tries for Pierre Schoeman, Ben White and Tom Jordan. Finn Russell converted six of them and added a penalty. France, who finished strongly to cut Scotland’s lead and secure a bonus point which could yet prove crucial, scored tries through Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Theo Attissogbe, Antoine Dupont, Thomas Ramos (two) and Oscar Jegou. Ramos added five conversions.

‘Belief has always been there for Scotland’

“We have momentum, definitely, and the belief has been there since before the tournament,” said Tuipulotu. “Maybe that's hard for you guys to see but I've been inside the changing room. I've been in the meetings and listening to Gregor talk and listening to the other coaches talk, and we have an airtight changing room that believes, not just after this game, but before this game as well.

“We've got to take that for one final week of the championship. We've got one more job to do.”

Ireland are on 14 points, two behind France and Scotland, and also have a chance of the title. The Scots have not beaten Ireland since 2017, losing 11 in a row in all competitions since Gregor Townsend took over as head coach. However, there is now a sense that they can go to Dublin and bury this long-standing hoodoo.

Tuipulotu highlighted the work of the pack in particular and also praised his team-mates for the way they supported him after he lost the ball to Dupont which led to Bielle-Biarrey’s early try.

“It’s a proud day for us but I think also one we've been building towards,” said the centre. “And also one that maybe, if you'd been on our training ground, not that we expected, but we felt what we were capable of. And I just couldn't be proud of, not necessarily like the big scoring moments, but the way we reacted to moments.

“I thought when I got stripped by Dupont and they scored, the way the boys rallied around me as well after that shows what type of team we are. It's a proud day for me as captain but I'm just really proud to be leading a group of guys like that, the ones that rally around each other, rally around our coach as we've done since you know the start of the tournament. I'm proud to be part of it.

“I really want to credit our pack, man. Like, the effort that went into that game from a pack perspective, the way that French forward pack had been rolling that first three weeks of championship going back to the autumn, the work our forward pack had to do today is probably part of that as well, where they got to breakdowns over and over and over again against a high jackaling team. They carried well. We won our set piece.”