Six Nations: Scotland v France - are Scotland facing the best team in the world?

The only team left standing in the hunt for a Grand Slam. The team on everyone's lips. The team that has come thundering out of the rugby doldrums to make itself Six Nations favourites.

There is a strong argument that not only are France the top side in Europe, they are the best on the planet.

With their compelling blend of brain and brawn, flair and flagellation, they battered the mighty All Blacks in the autumn and put Ireland to the sword in Paris a fortnight ago.

It is a startling revolution since 2019 and a near-decade of grim failure, and it could culminate in a first championship in a dozen years. Scotland's task is to derail the juggernaut.

France have assembled a wonderful coaching ticket, headed by former captain and scrum-half Fabien Galthie.

Renowned as a brilliant tactician, Galthie's abrasiveness was not always suited to the rigours of the club game, but he has soared on the international stage. His ingenuity in creating plays and cleaving open defences has helped France earn famous victories.

Galthie is a long-time admirer of Shaun Edwards, widely regarded as the best defence coach in the game, and hiring the Englishman has been a fabulous capture.

Edwards employs his trademark blitz defence where massive athletes — such as 145kg prop Uini Atonio and 126kg lock Paul Willemse — rush up to obliterate attackers, and jackaling backs Gael Fickou and Gabin Villiere burgle ball.

France have been made fitter and more dynamic by Thibault Giroud, their strength and conditioning specialist, and the festering civil war between clubs and the national federation has largely been quelled by former coach Bernard Laporte since he was appointed FFR president.

The headline star in France's posse of heavyweights is Antoine Dupont,