Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOGG: SCOTS MUST LEARN
STUART HOGG says Scotland must face some home truths after being taught a Six Nations lesson.
The dark blues skipper delivered a brutal assessment of his side’s display after being outclassed by a fabulous French side who remain on course for the Grand Slam.
It’s now back-to-back defeats for Gregor Townsend’s men, who went down in Wales two weeks ago.
Hogg believes it is time to accept some hard facts with games against Italy and Ireland still to come.
He said: “We need some harsh truths and lessons about where we are as a team.
“We’ll stay tight as a group and we will enjoy each other’s company, but we have two games left now to show what we are about.
“Sometimes we did show that and what it means to play for Scotland, but other times we were far from good. We are gutted.
“At times we played decent rugby, at times we got in the right areas, but we let ourselves down at the vital times. Credit to France. They took their opportunities when on offer but did they have to work hard for their first three tries? Probably not.”
Les Bleus took command early on with tries by Paul Willemse and Yoram Moefana.
Scotland responded in spirited fashion when Rory Darge marked his first international start by touching down just before the half-hour.
A try by Gael Fickou at the end of the first half gave France breathing space once more. They had further scores from Jonathan Danty and Damian Penaud (twice) after the break, before Duhan van der Merwe’s final-minute score.
France captain Antoine Dupont (below) said: “There is a lot of satisfaction to be drawn from this game. We made a very good start, then we gave them some points. They came back but despite that, despite two or three errors in our camp, we did not panic. The state of mind has always been good.” SCOTLAND: Tries: Darge, van der Merwe; Pen: Russel; Cons: Russell, Hogg. FRANCE: Tries: Willemse, Moefana, Fickou, Danty, Penaud 2; Cons: Jaminet 3.