![\"Scotland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/66d64f715d8305bd56ef84a266534e73.jpeg\"\/)
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Scotland still have hopes of winning the Six Nations (Nigel French\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Scotland\u2019s forwards coach John Dalziel has issued a rallying cry to his squad, challenging them to deliver their best performance of the Six Nations<\/a> campaign this Saturday against France<\/a>.<\/p>\n The pivotal encounter is seen as crucial for keeping their hopes alive for a maiden Guinness Six Nations title.<\/p>\n Following an opening-weekend defeat to Italy, the Scots have demonstrated resilience, securing consecutive victories over England and Wales.<\/p>\n This resurgence has propelled them to second place in the table, trailing only this weekend\u2019s Grand Slam-chasing French side.<\/p>\n A bonus-point triumph over France at Murrayfield could see Scotland leapfrog their visitors, setting up a thrilling finale in Ireland.<\/p>\n Scotland will face a formidable French side this weekend (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Dalziel underscored the magnitude of the occasion, stating: “It\u2019s everything, isn\u2019t it?”<\/p>\n He added, reflecting on the team’s journey: “Sione (Tuipulotu) spoke well today to the group: when we came in here it was a seven-week block together, it\u2019s now down to two and we\u2019ve given ourselves an opportunity to be in this position where we are.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to really relish every minute we are together for the next two weeks. It starts on Saturday. Our sights are only on that and we want to give our supporters the game of the tournament so far. The belief has honestly never been higher.”<\/p>\n The historical encounters between Scotland and France under Gregor Townsend have often been tight, with Scotland winning five of their 13 meetings.<\/p>\n A particularly memorable and contentious fixture at Murrayfield two years ago saw Scotland denied a last-gasp try by Sam Skinner, a decision that would have secured victory.<\/p>\n Dalziel acknowledged this history: “We chatted about that this morning. We\u2019ve got good history there, but we\u2019ve been on the wrong side of it as well with narrow defeats.<\/p>\n Test match rugby can be around a decision, which we had two years ago here. But it\u2019s evidence that we can be there, we can be with France, as formidable as they are, at the tail end of a Test match.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can be there banging and we got on the wrong side of that decision. It was a tough decision, it could have been given differently but it is what it is.<\/p>\n \u201cThe belief is in how competitive we\u2019ve been with them and we believe that when we\u2019ve got our game right, we can challenge them.”<\/p>\n In a boost for the Scottish camp, influential number eight Jack Dempsey, initially feared to be out for the championship after sustaining a bicep injury against England, has rejoined the squad.<\/p>\n Jack Dempsey (centre) could be back in contention to play against France (Getty Images)<\/p>\n His potential availability for the clash against Les Bleus hinges on Wednesday\u2019s training session.<\/p>\n Dalziel expressed cautious optimism regarding Dempsey\u2019s return: “We\u2019re just basically monitoring that day by day. Having him back is a bonus and we\u2019ll do everything we can to get him ready and available.<\/p>\n \u201cTomorrow will be a big day in terms of the contact element of that. We\u2019ve certainly got more hope than we had at the start of last week.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought that Jack was gone for the tournament, so for him to be able to turn around and find a way to be in this position has been good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland still have hopes of winning the Six Nations (Nigel French\/PA Wire) Scotland\u2019s forwards coach John Dalziel has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,36,4884,232380,50791,712,4209,16,15],"class_list":["post-801851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-britain","tag-france","tag-great-britain","tag-john-dalziel","tag-murrayfield","tag-scotland","tag-six-nations","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116166938394978109","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Scotland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e9508eb62d31803d275fc0c29fb8bf3e.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/b79a410913427ad2e037402daf4ffe1d.jpeg\"\/)
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