BETTING on France may always be dangerous but only true clairvoyants and unreconstructed contrarians would have considered putting money on the scenario that confronts Les Bleus this evening.

The pre-championship favourites for this season's RBS 6 Nations title go into their final match without a win to their name and certain to avoid a first tournament whitewash since 1957 thanks only to their draw with Ireland.

However, lose to Scotland in Paris and they will pick up world rugby's least sought after prize for the first time since the same opponents ensured the wooden spoon went France's way on the final championship weekend of the last millennium.

Kelly Brown, Scotland's captain, recalled yesterday that his involvement in a second-string sevens tournament with Melrose kept interrupting his enjoyment of his national team's astonishing 1999 try spree. His newest team-mate in the current side has no memory of the occasion whatsoever.

Grant Gilchrist was eight years old that day, the last time Scotland won something tangible in the shape of the last Five Nations title. That means the lock has been aware of Scotland beating France just once, at Murrayfield in 2006.

Should Gilchrist participate in a victory tonight, Scotland, could finish in the top half of the Six Nations table for only the third time and the first time since that aforementioned 2006 campaign, having already won two matches for the first time since then.

Scott Johnson, the Scots' caretaker coach, was at his most playful this week when asked to assess the significance of his team's final match, retorting: "The game of the tournament, that's why were on last, eh?"

Switching quickly to more serious vein he said of France: "They're a wounded animal. Bounce of ball, something else, they could be going for a grand slam. Every game they've played they've been in it at the death. Everyone says they haven't had a good tournament but they could easily have had something else."

That analysis may be over-generous, for there is no question that France, who are seeking to overhaul either Italy or Ireland at the foot of the table, depending on the outcome of today's first match, have slumped from a team capable of sweeping aside all-comers in the autumn to one that has been unable to register a single victory in this tournament.

They broke their duck only last weekend with their second successive draw with Ireland, after defeats to Wales, Italy and England.

France are not alone in demonstrating just how much this competition, with its unfair home or away format, relies on momentum.

Ireland looked to have it early in the second half of their opening-day meeting with Wales. Brian O'Driscoll seemed to prove right his coach's decision in taking the captaincy from him while relying on his professionalism to help Jamie Heaslip lead the Welsh into a new era by capping a superb personal display with the try that gave them a 30-point lead.

Yet by the end of that match it looked to have swung Wales' way and by midway through Ireland's meeting with England the following week, a match being billed a title-decider at that early stage, the injury problems that have hobbled them and hastened Declan Kidney's departure from international coaching, were taking their toll.

Ireland's campaign was perhaps best demonstrated by this week's mayhem as they recalled Jonny Sexton, who has become so important to them, only to have to reverse that decision the same afternoon when he succumbed to a fresh injury.

It was hardly what Paddy Jackson's fragile confidence needed and the Italians will surely target him ruthlessly as they bid for a best-ever championship finish by adding a second win to their surprise defeat of France on the opening weekend.

It could hardly be a more treacherous match for the Irish either as they seek to protect their 100% championship record against Italy – something shared only with England – the week after Sergio Parisse returned to the Azzurri's ranks and, perhaps more importantly, they remembered where their strengths lie.

Italy will reflect on what might have been in this championship had they not allowed themselves to believe they had made a breakthrough to a new level.

A certain amount of complacency was surely a factor in the way they allowed themselves to be ripped apart by a back three that was announcing that, if nothing else, Scotland now boasts some attacking weaponry out wide.

Last weekend's return to core values at Twickenham had Italy back at their destructive best on a day that may yet prove pivotal in this championship. Had England won by the expected margin, the only question in what is the match of the day at the Millennium Stadium, would have been whether they could be denied a grand slam since the title would have been beyond Welsh reach.

Yet in more ways than one England's failure to do any more than double the points differential advantage they boasted over Wales going into that match means the sense of inevitability that was building has well and truly gone. Not only is a seven- point home win for Wales far from inconceivable at the best of times, but remember that word momentum. England may just have lost theirs last Sunday.

Meanwhile, a Wales team who began so poorly in registering a seventh successive defeat have gradually offered a reminder of why they won a grand slam last season.

Victory in Paris turned things around and they capitalised fully on Parisse's absence before setting a new record for themselves with a fifth successive Six Nations away win that may have left Scotland whining about being conned, but has set up a classic encounter.

It may not, then, be taking place in the country to which the expression belongs, but a championship that began with one of its finest-ever opening weekends and has generated some wondrous drama in between times will have its grand finale in what is arguably its greatest theatre.