Stuart Hogg: Scotland achieved something special with France win

"Today was a great opportunity for us as a 23 and as a country to achieve something special. I believe we've done that," says Scotland full-back

Stuart Hogg said Scotland delivered on their desire to do 'something special as a 23 and as a country' by beating France in the Six Nations

Stuart Hogg says Scotland achieved something special after putting the brakes on France's Grand Slam ambitions.

The full-back celebrated his first home win as captain as Gregor Townsend's team stunned France 28-17 at Murrayfield.

Where England, Italy and Wales had all failed, Scotland succeeded as Sean Maitland's double and a late score from Stuart McInally ended the clean sweep hopes of Fabien Galthie's team in this year's Six Nations.

And Hogg admits the victory is among his proudest in a dark blue jersey.

"It's definitely up there," said the Exeter Chiefs player. "We talked before the game about how great memories are made by great opportunities.

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"Today was a great opportunity for us as a 23 and as a country to achieve something special. I believe we've done that.

Image: Hogg celebrated his first home win as Scotland captain with win over France

"We worked incredibly hard to give ourselves every opportunity of winning and I'm incredibly proud of the boys. We took it to France."

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France played out the final 44 minutes with 14 men after Mohamed Haouas' moment of madness cost them dear.

The prop saw red after landing a punch on Jamie Ritchie's chin but Hogg insists the dismissal was not the key factor in the visitors' downfall.

"It didn't change what we wanted to do," he said. "We wanted to be physical up front and exploit their blitz defence as a back line.

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend said his team played better when France had 15 men on the field than they did after Mohamed Haouas was sent off

"We stuck to our plan. You get a feel for momentum. We discussed (kicking to the corner at 7-6 down) as leaders, we backed ourselves.

"Just after the red card, as well, we thought about going to the corner. The more we discussed it, we decided to take the three. We've got a good group of leaders and we trust each other.

"We spoke about staying together as a backline and not giving them an easy out to fly out and belt somebody. We took that away from them. The strength of theirs, we hopefully turned it into a weakness.

"We don't strive for perfection because we believe it doesn't exist. But we feel we're in a good place."

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