Scotland 22, France 38

SCOTLAND produced a rousing finish to their European Championship campaign to keep alive their hopes of securing a place in the 2016 Four Nations Series.

The Bravehearts lost to a lively France side in Galashiels but still top the table on points difference and will be crowned champions unless Ireland beat Wales by more than 40 points in the last match in Wrexham tomorrow.

The Scots, who included Bulls star Danny Addy in their line-up, looked out of it when a poor first-half show left them trailing 38-6 at half-time but they scored three converted tries in the last 18 minutes to get within the 17 points they needed to stay alive.

Rarely can a victorious team have looked as disillusioned as the French trooped off the pitch at Netherdale, while the Scots looked hardly in the mood to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Scotland Rugby League.

It was the first rugby league match to be played in the Borders but was heading for a huge anti-climax as France scrum half Remy Marginet produced a second consecutive 22-point haul, this time with a first-half hat-trick of tries and five goals from seven attempts.

France coach Richard Agar was forced into a late reshuffle when winger Damien Cardace damaged a quad muscle in the warm-up and the visitors were caught napping after only three minutes when loose forward Ben Kavanagh forced his way over from close range for the first try.

Skipper Danny Brough added the conversion to make it 6-0 to the Scots but it merely raised false hopes among the 1,500 crowd.

France captain Jason Baitieri had a try disallowed for a forward pass but a speculative kick from Theo Fages set up half-back partner Marginet for the first of his three tries in a devastating 12-minute spell.

Baitieri, Eloi Pelissier and wingers Aurelien Decarnin and Tony Gigot also took advantage of Scotland's wafer-thin defence to touch down as Les Tricolours opened up a 32-point lead by the interval.

Scotland were much improved in the second half but they looked to have left themselves too much to do as the score remained unchanged throughout the third quarter.

Centre Ben Hellewell showed a nice turn of pace to pull back a try on 62 minutes and then it was the turn of twin brothers Adam and Johnathan Walker to take centre stage.

Adam barged his way over from close range on 72 minutes and Johnathan took Brough's pass four minutes later to follow him over the line.

Brough maintained his nerve with his final kick and Scotland clung on for the last four minutes to claim a moral victory from a comprehensive defeat.