Francce broke Irish hearts at the very death for the second time in a Six Nations game this year as Elvis Vermeuelen's try gave them victory over Scotland.

Knowing they needed to win by 24 points to overtake Ireland in the title race, Les Bleus scored six tries, two in the first half and four in the second - the last nailed by Vermeuelen deep in injury time. Scotland put up a brave fight, scoring three tries themselves, but they were not able to slow up the French juggernaut.

Les Bleus were level on were looking to bounce back from their disappointing 26-18 reverse to the world champions at Twickenham last Sunday. They made four changes with Lionel Beauxis, making his first start for France, coming in at fly-half in place of the injured David Skrela.

Scotland opened the scoring in the seventh minute when recalled winger Nikki Walker beat Clement Poitrenaud to a steepling Dan Parks up-and-under and grounded in the left corner. Chris Paterson added the extras.

In the 18th minute, Beauxis slotted over a penatly to reduce the deficit to 7-3.

The strong Scottish defence was finally breached when the recalled Imanol Harinordoquy bulldozed over from close range and Beauxis converted.

Before long, they had stretched their lead. Pierre Mignoni made a break from scrum-half, collected his own chip ahead, and quickly offloaded to Yannick Jauzion who went over underneath the posts.

Beauxis converted and then nailed a penalty from under the sticks to make it 20-7 with half-time approaching.

The last word of the half, however, went to Sean Lamont, when the Scottish winger took a quick tap to breeze through a gap in the stretched French defence for a try.

Paterson converted to close the gap further.

France came out knowing they needed to go on the offensive to have any hope of catching Ireland. They extended their lead in the 53rd minute when David Marty got over in the corner. A conversion made the score 27-14.

In the 61st minute, Cedric Heymans then dived over for an unconverted score in the left corner. Scotland were reduced to 14 men when Lamont was sin-binned and France made them pay when prop Olivier Milloud picked up and dived over through a melee of players. Beauxis converted to make it 39-14, meaning Les Bleus moved ahead of Ireland in the standings with 15 minutes left.

Scotland fought back and three times turned down kickable penalties before prop Euan Murray took a long pass from Paterson and powered over in the left corner. Paterson missed the conversion to leave the tournament delicately poised with the score 39-19. France ploughed on in search of one last score and after a repeated pummelling by the pack, Elvis Vermeulen burrowed over. After a long wait for the video official to confirm to score, Beauxis added a conversion to complete the scoring.

FRANCE Poitrenaud; Clerc, Marty, Jauzion, Heymans; Beauxis, Mignoni; Milloud, Ibanez, Villiers, Nallet, Thion, Betsen, Bonnaire, Harinordoquy SCOTLAND Paterson; S Lamont, Dewey, Henderson, Walker; Parks, Lawson; Kerr, Ford, E Murray, Hines, S Murray, Taylor, J Beattie, Hogg