Is it Scotland's year to break the Millennium duck in Paris?

BRENDAN GALLAGHER talks to two of the heroes from Scotland’s last win over the French in Paris.

- Brendan Gallagher

There have been only two Scotland victories in France in the last 48 years and as luck would have it your correspondent was fortunate enough to be reporting in Paris on both occasions. Both were spectacular in their own ways and showcased Scottish rugby at its very best. There is always a bit off X-factor and the whiff of skirling bagpipes in the background when Scotland pull off a famous win, they tend to stick in the memory, doubly so on French soil.

There was their stunning last-minute victory in 1995 when Gavin Hastings sprinted in under the posts and then popped the conversion over to clinch a drought-relieving 23-21 win, Scotland not having won in the French capital for 26 years at that stage.

And then just four years later Scotland slipped the leash in remarkable fashion, scoring five tries in one frenzied 20 minutes period before the break, a blitzkrieg never matched before or since in the Championship.

I only mention this in passing because this current Scotland side is beginning to have the same feel about it as those feisty, enterprising, teams of the Nineties which were such good value when the force was with them.

At some stage soon the class off 2017 are, rather like Glasgow have already done a couple of times this season at club level, going to light the touch paper and produce a definitive 80-minute performance. And when that happens somebody is going to get a hiding. It might or might not happen in Paris today but it’s just around the corner.

The win in 1995 is of course mainly remembered for the ‘Toonie flip’, a wonderfully dextrous back-of-the-hand pass by Gregor Townsend which wrong-footed the French defence and sent ‘Big Gav’ on his way virtually unopposed, Jean Luc Sadourny gave chase but to no avail.