Scotland humbled by on-song French

By Mark Stevens
19/8/19

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend admits he has some tough selection decisions to make this week in the wake of a hugely disappointing start to the Rugby World Cup warm-up series.

The Scots - who included Exeter Chiefs newcomer Stuart Hogg in their side - were given a roasting in the south of France on Saturday night, crashing 32-3 in Nice, and Townsend has called for his players to make swift amends when Les Bleus come to BT Murrayfield this weekend.

The hosts claimed the initiative within two minutes through Alivereti Raka's try and never looked back.

Maxime Medard and Gregory Alldritt scored further first-half tries, with Medard and Antoine Dupont crossing after the break as the free-flowing French ran riot.

Camille Lopez kicked the remainder of the home side's points, whilst Scotland's solitary response was a penalty from fly-half Adam Hastings.

Townsend said post-game that he would use the coming days to ponder whether to make sweeping changes or task most of the team who flopped so badly to go out and put things right.

“We had a plan for the first two games and there are going to be a number of changes for next week,” said Townsend. “It might [now] be fewer, but we will have a look at where we are.

“There’s a lot of work to do. We expected a better performance. We go into every game we play, no matter the opponent, with the aim of winning and we believed as players and coaches that we were well-prepared for that game.

“Obviously that wasn’t correct. We missed parts of that first half just from not being in place quick enough to stop France getting quick ball and then not capitalising on opportunities we did have.

“France were very good, they seemed like they were in really good condition. We know our players are in very good physical condition but obviously the match conditioning fell short but we will be better for the experience.”