Scotland will learn to adapt

SCOTLAND rugby head coach Vern Cotter feels they will take valuable experience from being made to adapt to losing key players throughout their narrow defeat by France in Paris.

Scotland had three captains during the course of the 22-16 RBS 6 Nations defeat with Jonny Gray ultimately taking the armband after Greig Laidlaw and John Barclay went off injured.

Barclay’s replacement, John Hardie, also went off hurt i n a very bruising encounter along with the likes of Allan Dell, Fraser Brown and Alex Dunbar, the latter temporarily.

Scrum-half Laidlaw’s departure with an ankle problem 25 minutes into an even first half was a particular blow given his leadership skills, his ability to manage the game and his i nfluence on stand-off Finn Russell.

Russell was extremely instrumental in setting up both Scotland tries, finished by Stuart Hogg and Tim Swinson, but his failure t o conver t t he second from beneath the posts, which would have put Scotland 18-13 up, seemed to unnerve him despite having Ali Price beside him.

Scotland did not score again i n the final 35 minutes and, although they withstood i ntense pressure, Camille Lopez added two more penalties in the final nine minutes to leave the visitors with only a bonus point to show for their efforts.

Cotter said: “It’s an experience that will help us on a positive side to be able to deal with those types of things again. It wasn’t perfect but there was a good team opposite us.”

Vern Cotter