SCOTLAND would once have been fairly happy to have come to Paris, competed well, and ended up losing by only six points. Yesterday, after a 22-16 defeat, Vern Cotter and his players were left frustrated and disappointed at having come so close.
“We’re not particularly happy to lose the game,” the head coach said. “We’ll have a good look at some of the reasons we didn’t have control from start to finish. There will be an honest review and we’ll move from there.”
Scotland knew that France would try to overpower them, and they hoped that the physical effort to gain dominance would tire the home team out as the game entered its final stages.
But Cotter acknowledged that was not how the contest panned out, with the French recording the last two scores of the game.
“Credit to the French team, they applied pressure all the way to the end,” he said. “The rucks were hard work, a fiercely contested part of the game. The plan didn’t come off, and we’ll put another one in place for Wales.
“The players showed a lot of courage in defence not to give up a try when [France] had 10 minutes on our line, showed some real character.
“There were bits of the game where we didn’t link well and we’ll look to improve that, but the guys dug in hard when losing a couple of players and we regrouped reasonably well.”
The losing bonus means Scotland have five points from their opening two games following the win over Ireland – they are in fifth place in the table – but the more significant outcome for the remaining matches in the championship could be the injuries to Greig Laidlaw, John Barclay and John Hardie.
A medical bulletin on the injured players is expected today.
“Greig has hurt his ankle,” Cotter confirmed. “Other players who came off were head injuries, so we’ll see. Other players are banged up as well.
The most bizarre moment in the contest was the conversion missed by Finn Russell immediately below the posts. Cotter would not be drawn on whether the referee had hurried the stand-off unnecessarily, before the permitted time for the kick had elapsed, saying he had yet to speak to his player.
“I haven’t asked the question or found out,” Cotter said. “It hasn’t been discussed but it might be something we’ll have a look at.
France coach Guy Noves said: “Scotland played to a high quality and gave us a hard time in the match. Last week we lost to England in the last few minutes, so tonight I’m very happy we won in the last few minutes.”
After Wales’ defeat by England on Saturday, Scotland’s loss leaves the English as the only team who can win the Grand Slam.
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