France justified its status as Six Nations favorite with a 30-12 win over Italy, while England's rebuilt side showed it has spirit as well as talent to open its title defense with a 13-6 win at Scotland Saturday. In their first match since losing the Rugby World Cup final in October, the French touched down four times at Stade de France and conceded only four kicks to gain some payback for last season's 22-21 upset in Rome. Scotland dominated an England side containing three players making their debut but made basic errors to throw away the chance of victory. Instead, England held out and scored the only try from a charge down at the start of the second half. The final match of the opening round kicks off Sunday when Wales heads to Ireland. France backs Aurelien Rougerie, Julien Malzieu, Vincent Clerc and Wesley Fofana, on debut, each scored a try and scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili kicked 10 points. Italy played well and shaded France for long periods but lacked the playmaking ability of the home side. Kris Burton kicked nine points in his first start for Italy since last year's Six Nations, and Tobias Botes added a penalty, but a repeat of last year's result was never on the cards. “We relish this first victory in this competition,” Rougerie said. “We know it's always tough to start the Six Nations.” Yachvili put France ahead in 11th after an infringement in the ruck and, although Burton dropped a goal five minutes later to level at 3-3, Italy never managed to get its nose in front. France center Rougerie found a big gap in the Italy defense and ran unchallenged to touch down. No. 8 Louis Picamoles then charged off a scrum to feed Malzieu, who held off Edoardo Gori and new cap Giovanbattista Venditti, cut inside fullback Andrea Masi and beat tackles from Gori and Alberto Sgarbi to score. Yachvili converted the first but missed the second to leave France 15-6 ahead at halftime.
