France - 16 Scotland - 9: Scotland's lawyers will today begin the process of attempting to overturn the yellow card which undermined their brave performance on Saturday, holding out until four minutes before the final whistle.
The legal team, led by Bruce Cadzow, who was in Paris, will also be preparing to deal with possible disciplinary action against the Scotland coach Matt Williams after he made a series of allegations against Simon McDowell, the Irish touch judge.
It was McDowell who ruled that Allister Hogg's foot had clipped the touchline 25 yards out on his way to scoring a try which would have put Scotland eight points ahead with 18 minutes remaining. After the match Williams said he had seen the video "so many times I will remember it clearly when I am an old man".
He alleged that it was the third time McDowell had cost the Scots. McDowell, he said, had confirmed that an Italian try had been properly grounded in Rome last spring when the Scots lost 20-14 and had missed a knock-on when Australia scored the first try at Hampden in the autumn.
"I'm staggered that an official can make these decisions and keep getting appointed," said Williams. "That is something that cannot continue. We can't keep turning blind eyes to that because it cost this Scotland team a victory today. We all make mistakes. But three times, same guy, same team; we've got a problem."
McDowell was originally appointed as the television official but switched with Nigel Whitehouse when the Welsh touch judge reported calf problems. "We didn't know he was going to run the line," said Williams. "We weren't consulted."
Williams, who last season led Scotland to the wooden spoon and still does not have a Six Nations win, added: "That was a magnificent performance and one that, in my opinion, deserved victory. We actually gained that victory, even though it will never show in the records. There were three outrageous decisions."
Williams also claimed that the Welsh referee Nigel Williams had yellow-carded the wrong man when he dismissed Jon Petrie for persistent offside with Scotland three points ahead nearing injury-time.
Petrie said afterwards that the decision had reduced him to tears. "It's an emotional thing when you know you haven't done anything wrong," said the Glasgow flanker. There had been no warning before the yellow card. "I was well away from the action when he just turned to me and said: 'Blatant offside.'"
Petrie, who was playing his 36th game for Scotland, added: "It's not the taking away of the yellow card now that is the main thing for me. People will see that I haven't done anything, but the fact still remains that I got yellow-carded in the last 10 minutes of an international when we were in the lead and we ended up losing the match.
"It's difficult for me because guilty or not that's what I'll take away from the match. It's been a dark time for Scottish rugby over the last couple of months and we see ourselves as the guys who can do a lot to lift things. We don't want to be seen as brave archetypical Scottish losers."
However, lose they did because, down to 14 men, Scotland were pushed around at two scrums before Hugo Southwell, playing his first international at centre, failed to get a kick away and Damien Traille caught the ricochet to score and lift French hearts for about the only time.
Faced with solid Scottish defence, led by Jason White, the Six Nations champions were sterile in attack and at times fraught in defence. The pairing of Yann Delaigue and Pierre Mignoni did not click and only the intransigence of the head coach Bernard Laporte will see them together against England at Twickenham on Sunday.
Laporte's manager Jo Maso described the match as "a hold-up - a game of fear" and, even though Laporte has been confirmed in his job until the World Cup in France in 2007, with this on top of the thrashing by New Zealand last autumn he will be under great pressure to restore some swagger to the French game.
The biggest cheer of the afternoon came when Frederic Michalak replaced Delaigue in the 78th minute, just after the fly-half had pulled France level at 9-9 with a drop-goal which had been anticipated with groans from the crowd. Earlier Delaigue had kicked two penalties - to Chris Paterson's three - but missed two which undermined Laporte's decision to start with the third-choice kicker for Castres.
There will also be doubts about the back-row trio of Sebastien Chabal, Patrick Tabacco and Julien Bonnaire. When he managed to keep control of the ball Chabal made some forceful runs but all three offer much the same and Serge Betsen played well in Biarritz's win on Saturday night.
FRANCE: Elhorga (Agen); Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne; Valbon, Brive,18), Liebenberg (Stade Francais), Traille (Biarritz), Dominici (Stade Francais); Delaigue (Castres; Michalak, Toulouse, 78), Mignoni (Clermont Auvergne; Yachvili, Biarritz, 84); Marconnet (Stade Francais), Servat (Toulouse; Bruno, Sale, 84), De Villiers (Stade Francais; Milloud, Bourgoin, 52), Pelous (Toulouse, capt), Thion (Biarritz; Lamboley, Toulouse, 72), Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Chabal (Sale), Tabacco (Section Paloise; Nyanga, Beziers, 67).
SCOTLAND: Paterson (Edinburgh); Danielli (Borders), Craig (Glasgow), Southwell (Edinburgh), Lamont (Glasgow); Parks (Glasgow), Cusiter (Borders); Smith (Northampton; Kerr, Leeds, 78), Bulloch (Glasgow, capt), Kerr (Glasgow; Douglas, Borders, 57), Grimes (Newcastle; Dunbar, Leeds, 86), Murray (Edinburgh; Hines, Edinburgh, 69), White (Sale), Petrie (Glasgow), Hogg (Edinburgh).
Referee: N Williams (Wales).
