We opened with a bang and need to build on it now
SO this is what it feels like to prepare for the second game in the Six Nations having won the first one! I like it and we should do it more often. A week on and I still smile when I think about the performance last week, because it had everything.
There was brilliant attacking play in the first half when Stuart Hogg was at his mercurial and speedy best, but it was the collective understanding of the whole team that allowed him to play so well.
An effective attack is not just one player with the quality and ability to finish like Hogg; it needs everyone to know what their role is and then execute it. Otherwise the link in the chain will break.
When you watch the Ireland game back, you see Allan Dell, Zander Fagerson and Ryan Wilson do so much of the ‘dog’ work, which allows the likes of Hogg to strut his stuff.
When the team did their video review, these players would have received as much praise as Hogg for their role in the team performance. Proof that rugby is the ultimate team sport; you can only do your job when others have done theirs.
This collective responsibility continued in the second half — but in defence not in attack.
Ireland threw everything at Scotland after the interval and looked like they were going to sneak a win that had seemed unlikely when they were 21-5 down.
But champion sides always come back at you and this is a champion side. Granted, they did not play like one in the first half but Scotland should take huge comfort and confidence from wrestling the momentum back in the last ten minutes and finding a way to win.
We will see how important those last ten minutes were tomorrow in Paris. Had it been another glorious defeat, we would have been rolling out all the old favourites like ‘they are moving in the right direction’, ‘it is almost there’ or ‘a win is coming’.
Well, the win came and now we need to build on it. I don’t think there is any better place to do that than in Paris.
The forecast looks good — cold but dry — so this will allow Scotland to go and play. The aim will be to replicate the start we made last week at Murrayfield: fast, playing with tempo and accurate with the skills.
It is easier to do that playing at home but, if achieved tomorrow, it will serve two purposes: allow Scotland’s confidence to grow and plant seeds of doubt in the French players and fans.
Everyone knows you have to silence the crowd in Paris. The French players respond very positively if the crowd are ‘up’, but if they are not then the opposite is true. And the fans have not seen their team win there for a few games.
The aim will be to run this huge French pack ragged. The hosts will want to play at a much slower pace and make it a very physical encounter. They will have a huge advantage at set-piece, especially in the scrums, but so did Ireland and look how that turned out.
There were only six scrums in the entire match last week, so the clear advantage Ireland had in the first few never came to impact on the game as a whole and this is what Scotland will hope for tomorrow.
That means playing close to error-free rugby; no silly passes or off-loads, no squint lineouts. If you control the ball, you can dictate the pace of the game and this is what Greig Laidlaw and Finn Russell will have to do.
What I really like about this Scotland team is how many attacking threats they now have in the backs.
In the autumn Tests, it was all about Huw Jones scoring three tries in his first two appearances when Hogg was having a quiet few games.
Last week, the focus was all on Hogg with his dazzling feet and pace to score two tries and Jones was relatively quiet.
Throw Tommy Seymour, Sean Maitland, Alex Dunbar — when he is not scoring from a lineout — and Russell into the mix and you can see the firepower at our disposal.
The key is for the playmakers to work out what plays suit to bring out the best in this team and perform with a pace and accuracy that makes things very uncomfortable for France.
It is quite apt that this team, the best we have had since 1999, are playing on the pitch where that famous side tasted glory. The aim for the 2017 vintage is to build on last week’s victory and win in Paris for the first time since that day.
“The aim will be to run this huge French pack ragged