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his return to full training taking place tomorrow morning.
“The eye contusion suffered by Brown in the first half that ultimately ended his part in the match in the 25th minute has been resolved. The hooker will take full part in training this week. Several other players are showing the signs of a physical Test match and will be managed accordingly by the squad’s medical team. However, they are not considered an immediate concern for the next test against France.”
Cotter expects a different kind of contest against the French, but is sure his squad will approach the game with their spirits high. “There has to be confidence,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to go from the first game with a win. The challenge for us is that we get back in and do an honest review of the win and see how we can improve.
“France offer a different style. Ireland probably threw only a couple of offloads in the second half, but France are going to start the game with offloads. The defensive effort will have to be different, so there will be adjustments in the set piece.”
Adjustments were required early on against Ireland in the scrum, where Allan Dell was struggling against Tadhg Furlong until set-piece coach Jonathan Humphreys was able to get some technical advice on to the field. Despite the improvement, however, Cotter may think hard about whether to persist with Dell or start instead with Gordon Reid.
“The scrum was under pressure and we need to solve that quickly,” the coach accepted. “They [France] will have seen that.”
While the scrummaging was not the only flaw in Scotland’s performance, on balance Cotter was extremely satisfied with the way his team first got well on top and then had the character to fight back late on after going behind. “A couple of times we perhaps needed to make better decisions, but we got the win because we did enough at the end. It’s a good result and it helps us validate things that have been discussed. Now we can move forward and try to get another win.”
Meanwhile, Huw Jones is reported to be moving closer to a move from South Africa to Glasgow which would see Mark Bennett leave the Warriors for Edinburgh.