David sole on rugby

After an embarrassing trip to the south of France last week, Scotland partially made amends with a scrappy 17-14 victory over the French at Murrayfield yesterday afternoon.

It was a far better performance than the previous weekend – which wasn’t ever going to be difficult – but there are still some serious concerns for Gregor Townsend and his team.

The Scottish coach made wholesale changes to his side. Only Stuart Hogg remained from the starting-xv that was humbled last week – retained because he wanted some more game time.

You sensed that despite the changes, everyone in the camp was hurting after what happened on the Riviera and they were desperate to put things right.

Yet, once again the team started badly, conceding a try in the first two minutes from an interception – one of many indicators that there is still a great deal of rustiness and inaccuracy around.

There are simple things that Scotland do, or don’t do, which put unnecessary pressure on themselves. Discipline was erratic throughout.

Having got themselves into a great position and putting pressure on France, Ryan Wilson conceded a really stupid and gratuitous penalty.

From the ensuing line-out, George Turner did the same and suddenly the French had progressed almost 80 metres. Thankfully, this wasn’t the same French side as played last week so they could not capitalise but in Japan, others are likely to. Accuracy needs to improve.

While the scrum was dominant, until the French replacements began to arrive, the lineout was very shaky.

There were overthrows and squint throws in key positions – positions which Scotland should normally take advantage of. Instead, it simply released any building pressure.

What was most worrying, however, was that until Finn Russell floated a lovely pass out to Maitland for Scotland to score, the side had played almost 120 minutes of rugby without even looking like scoring a try. Even Maitland’s try came from a French error – one of many that they made on an afternoon that was ideal for open, running rugby.

Townsend favours a high paced, flowing game with as much continuity as possible yet within this, there needs to be some structure.

It was impossible to tell what the structure was yesterday – perhaps part of Townsend’s master plan, but it wasn’t very effective.

That Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw kicked more than last week was perhaps one indicator, but there was little attacking bite from the backs.

For all his leadership nous, Laidlaw slows the game down terribly at the base of rucks and that hurts the Scottish attacking game.

The squad now travel to Georgia for what will undoubtedly be another physical affair.

It was impossible to tell what the structure was yesterday