Flyhalf Camille Lopez kicked five penalties as France clawed out a riveting 15-8 win over Scotland in their Six Nations opener on Saturday.

Both teams played with verve in freezing temperature at the Stade de France, with Scotland substitute winger Dougie Fife scoring the sole try at the stroke of halftime to reduce France's lead to 9-8.

The Scots, chasing a first win in France since 1999, put on a display of pugnacity and guts, but were made to pay for their indiscipline as Lopez hit five of his six goalkicks.

France spent most of the second half on Scotland's turf, but lacked imagination and luck to breach the sturdy defense.

Captain Thierry Dusautoir admitted they will have to improve their efficiency if they are to beat defending champion Ireland next week in Dublin.

"Our current level is not good enough to hope for a win," Dusautoir said. "But we've got one week to work on our weaknesses, and we'll play without any pressure."

Typically, in the 72nd minute, France wing Yoann Huget picked up a dropped pass which his opposite, Tim Visser, missed going for the intercept. Huget bowled over Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg and looked set to cross, but had the ball knocked out of his hand from behind by diving center Mark Bennett.

"We were too impatient when we were close to the line," France coach Philippe Saint-Andre said. "We lost the ball two or three times when we were in these situations and we need to improve our finishing.

"But all in all, it's a good win, against a difficult team, who scored 40 points against Argentina in November. Two years ago, we would have lost this match."

It was a tight from the start, as Scotland's Jonny Gray stole the ball from the first France lineout.

France, sporting red jerseys for the first time in 56 years, and Scotland traded penalties before center Mathieu Bastareaud ignited the home side's first big move, surging through the midfield to win another penalty in front of the posts, as Scotland was caught offside.

Lopez, the chosen kicker over scrumhalf Rory Kockott, made it 6-3, and France plowed on, playing the ball wide and forcing the visitors to make a lot of tackles.

Hogg missed a 51-meter penalty, and rang the wake-up bell for the Scots in the 22nd as he went within five meters of the tryline, opposite Scott Spedding making a last-minute tackle. The Scots squandered good field position when flyhalf Finn Russell, who was into everything, hit a dropped goal wide.

Scotland was penalized again for offside, and Lopez extended France's lead to 9-3 with three minutes remaining.

The visitors' riposte was a brilliant team effort. Center Bennett offloaded the ball for Hogg, who was stopped in the left corner. The Scots moved the ball right, and Russell's long pass found Bennett then prop Euan Murray, who offloaded for Fife to score his first try for Scotland. Laidlaw missed the conversion, and the French remained in front at halftime.

A mistake from Fife, who threw the ball away in anger after slipping out of play, resulted in another penalty for the French, which Lopez converted. Another penalty came after the Scots collapsed the scrum but Lopez hit the post.

Scotland No. 8 John Beattie was sin-binned in the 61st for pulling down a maul, and France took advantage by pegging the Scots deep in their camp, but couldn't score.

"We rushed it too much in the decisive zone," Dusautoir said. "But don't worry about us, if we keep playing with as much ball possession as today, we'll find the solution and score tries."

France earned a final penalty of the dozen conceded by Scotland two minutes from time for holding, and Lopez coolly hit it to seal France's ninth straight win over the Scots.

"We made too many mistakes and gave too many penalties away," Russell said. "It was a good try to score before halftime. If we'd have come back out and backed it up, we could have won the game."

Ireland made a scrappy start in defense of its Six Nations title by laboring to beat Italy 26-3 on Saturday.

The visitors were in command throughout, but couldn't show it on the scoreboard until more than an hour passed. Even then, it took Italy to be reduced to 14 men for Ireland to finally produce a try.

Referee Pascal Gauzere tired of Italy's infractions and sin-binned hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini.

Within seconds, Ireland turned a 12-3 lead on penalties into 17-3. Captain Paul O'Connell's lineout grab was taken to the line by No. 8 Jordi Murphy, and scrumhalf Conor Murray dummied and barged over beside the ruck.

Ireland had the win in the bag, but for good measure, space opened for last-minute starter Tommy O'Donnell to run in a second try in two minutes.

O'Donnell started only because flanker Sean O'Brien, set to play his first test in 15 months after two shoulder reconstructions, injured his hamstring in the warmup. Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was "quietly confident" O'Brien will pass scans in Dublin.

If O'Brien was the worst of Ireland's problems, then the visitors could regard it as a good day, an eighth successive test win for the first time since 2009. The plague of knock-ons could be explained away by a first match in 11 weeks and a slippery field, all the while facing proud opposition who play their best at home.

"It was a slog, but I don't know if it was that frustrating. Any time you come to Rome that's exactly what you're expecting — a slog," Ireland fullback Rob Kearney said. "We knew that if we just kept chipping away and trying to build some phases that eventually we would break them down."

Schmidt suggested Ireland's display was "between 30 and 40 percent off" what England showed in a 21-16 win over Wales in Cardiff on Friday.

"I don't think we would have played with them last night," Schmidt said. "We certainly need to up our game. Part of it was the pressure Italy put on us but I know we can do better than that. ... We had six of the starting 15 we had this time last year. That in itself presents a challenge."

Until the burst of tries, both sides found the other's defense unbreakable, and resorted to kicking for territory. Italy lost four of its lineout throw-ins, and it was troubled by Ireland's rolling maul, but mistakes kept ruining any Irish momentum.

"The game probably went how a number of us expected it would," Schmidt said. "We didn't help ourselves too much but at the same time we got good field possession and the Italian defense was very hard to break down."

Flyhalf Ian Keatley kicked four penalties to one by Italy counterpart Kelly Haimona before the two converted tries made up Ireland's biggest win in Italy in six years.

Italy came closest to a try near fulltime, when Luke McLean's chip couldn't be gathered by captain Sergio Parisse, and ended up being grabbed behind the try-line by Haimona. But the try was disallowed by video replay, which suggested the ball brushed Parisse's fingertips, and therefore was knocked on.

But Parisse said he didn't touch the ball.

"We only had two or three minutes of interesting play, in the final minutes," Italy coach Jacques Brunel said.

"We showed great quality in the defensive phase. But ... it's impossible to win with so little possession. Certainly, the main issue today was the lineout. Our scrum is at or even better than Ireland's level."

But Italy knows it needs more than a good scrum to beat Ireland when they next meet, in the Rugby World Cup on Oct. 4 in London.

Next weekend, Ireland hosts France, while Italy visits England.

"If we go to Twickenham and play like we did today, only defending in the first half, it's going to be difficult," Parisse said.