Controversy over Russell conversion is just a red herring

Finn Russell’s topped conversion of Tim Swinson’s try was worth two points. France ultimately beat Scotland by six.

Yes, one supposes it might have been a different game had Scotland led by five instead of just three early in the second half.

Some suggestions were that a message from the Scottish bench to hurry the conversion because of fears it might be chalked off by the TMO caused Russell to be rushed. But the loss of those two points was clearly not as significant as Scotland failing to secure the resultant kick-off, which allowed France field possession to score a penalty almost immediately.

Nor did those two lost points really affect what won France the game, which was a scrummage superiority that allowed them to pin Scotland back whenever they really needed to.

That, and a secure lineout, meant France had the sort of foundation that Ireland never really had a week ago.

It was pretty familiar to those of us who have trudged to and from the Stade de France all these years – French forward power ultimately stifling a plucky Scottish effort, and no ball to make a difference in the last 10 minutes.

Fuss over a conversion would be a distraction from Scotland’s problem, which is that every team is going to target our scrummage in this championship, and unless it can be avoided with relatively few scrums as occurred against Ireland, it’s potentially a debilitating deficiency.

Other than this area it’s a vastly improved Scottish outfit. Injuries to Ali Dickinson and WP Nel were always going to be hard to overcome, but yesterday showed there’s enough about the team that they could win at venues like the Stade if they could just get equality in the set-piece.

A potentially superb season could be lost by a problem at one of rugby’s most basic elements.

It’s a major headache for Vern Cotter ahead of Wales and especially the trip to England in the next month.

Alex Dunbar is hauled down by the Les Bleus defence.