Scots bounce back after Nice hiding
Blessed relief. At the end of 80 frenetic minutes in which Scotland dragged themselves back from an 11-point deficit with 40 relentlessly positive minutes, the overriding emotion of players, coaches and a capacity Murrayfield crowd was a sense of disaster avoided.
This hard-fought victory in a World Cup warm-up match with the intensity of a full-on Test match was the balm needed to salve the still fresh wound of last weekend’s humiliation in Nice.
If some Scotland players showed a lack of character and gumption in that 32-3 defeat, in front of their own fans they played with a desire which eventually swamped a France side which started the afternoon trying, and occasionally succeeding, to replicate the outlandish offloading game which inflicted so much damage a week ago.
Scotland weathered the early storm and although they eventually won courtesy of suffocating defence and tries either side of half-time, they were far from perfect – Blair Kinghorn’s butchering of a two-man overlap was just one of several chances that went begging, their line-out malfunctioned badly and Finn Russell had a game to forget – but they wanted it so much that it was enough to see them home.
Greig Laidlaw left no doubt that last week’s debacle was the emotional fuel that powered this win. “With the jersey, the history and what goes with it, it is a given to be fired up,” the Scotland captain said. “The boys were hurting from last week, and we wanted to do well for them, too. They never went out there to get that result last week, so it was important, both for the jersey and momentum, to beat a good French team going into the World Cup.”
Those aspirations took an almighty dunt in the opening exchanges when, for the second week in a row, France scored a try within two minutes of the kick-off, thanks to a Scottish mistake. This time, Peter Horne was at fault, the centre throwing a telegraphed misspass which was picked off by Damian Penaud, the wing scooting over untouched from halfway.
Although France were again offloading well, Scotland’s line speed and aggression in defence were light years ahead of Nice, and meant that France had few chances. Laidlaw had kicked Scotland’s first points after France were caught offside, but looked comfortable. So when Penaud scored a second try after 26 minutes following a turnover to put France 14-3 ahead, Gael Fickou skinning Ryan Wilson on the outside in midfield and then drawing last man Stuart Hogg before putting his wing away, it was against the run of play.
“I felt in the first 20 minutes, we were on our game although that wasn’t shown on the scoreboard because a couple of times France scored off our possession,” Gregor Townsend, the Scotland coach, said. “But I felt that with the bite in our tackles, the speed of our ball, and where we were attacking, it looked like the real us out there.”
Looking the part is clearly not enough, but with half-time looming, Scotland finally hauled themselves back into the game. Defensive pressure forced Thomas Ramos into a poor pass spilt by Penaud, and seized upon by Kinghorn. Although the wing was hauled down short, the ball was moved left where Russell’s floated miss-pass put Sean Maitland into the corner, Laidlaw’s touchline conversion making it 14-10 at the interval.
Scotland’s second try also came from defensive pressure. Their line speed forced a French knock-on in Scotland’s 22, Russell hacked ahead, Kinghorn forced a turnover, and after several phases Chris Harris barrelled over to give Scotland a 17-14 lead they never relinquished.
There were some huge positives for Scotland. Although the line-out again malfunctioned badly, the scrum was rock solid, and they even won a couple of penalties and free-kicks. But it was defence which won Scotland this game.
In Nice, the French forwards regularly breached Scotland’s defences and were immediately on the front foot, at Murrayfield the back row in particular were outstanding at stopping the momentum. Scotland’s aggression, line speed and excellent kick-chase also put France under pressure and forced turnovers, 17 of them in the first half.
Earlier in the week, assistant coach Mike Blair had said that there were only two spots in the 31-man World Cup squad up for grabs, but yesterday a whole host of hopefuls enhanced their chances. As long as he recovers from the head knock which led to his premature departure, debutant Blade Thomson surely played himself on to the plane with a display of rumbustious aggression, in particular a bonecrushing tackle on Felix Lambey which dislodged the ball and saw the French second row depart soon after.
Forwards Scott Cummings and Ryan Wilson also did enough to claw their way up the pecking order, as did outside centre Harris and replacement wing Kinghorn. There were some concerns though: Sam Skinner sustained what looked like a potentially serious hamstring injury, while Tommy Seymour joined Thomson on the sidelines with a head knock.
“It wasn’t the perfect performance, but what I found really satisfying was how the players found a way to win,” Townsend said.
“What the players did today was excellent. But we know that our performance will have to improve a lot over the next few weeks.”