Six Nations: France not accepting wooden spoon

THE French were adamant on Saturday night that their humiliation was complete at finishing bottom of the RBS Six Nations Championship for the first time, without the need to stir things further with a wooden spoon.

The ‘spoon’ has become a booby prize handed down to clubs who finished last in recent years, deriving apparently from Cambridge University where the ‘wooden spoon’ was presented in the 19th century to the student with the lowest mark in the mathematics tripos.

However, across the Channel it refers only to a whitewash. By that thinking, Scotland collected the unwanted prize last season with their first winless championship since Matt Williams’ debut year as a Test coach in 2004 while France’s last ‘spoon’ collection was in 1957.

This year, a draw with Ireland in the penultimate weekend of Six Nations action ensured that France headed into the final games knowing that the mythical ‘spoon’ would not be coming their way. They also knew that a 16-point win would also lift them above the Irish and into fifth spot, but Scotland’s defence ensured that while they could not claim a first Paris win in 14 years there was no movement off the bottom for France.