In comes Laidlaw as Townsend decides to take a more pragmatic approach
SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend has made six changes from the side that lost so badly to Wales with the most significant being the restoration of former captain Greig Laidlaw at scrum-half ahead of Ali Price.
Laidlaw is not as quick on the break as Price and his service is slower but his game management and kicking game is superior and his return after a season plagued with injury suggests Scotland are going to take a slightly more measured approach against the French.
Of the other changes, tighthead prop Simon Berghan comes in after serving a six-week ban and Sean Maitland replaces the injured Byron McGuingan while Huw Jones switches to his preferred slot at outside centre. Playmaker Peter Horne is alongside him at inside centre.
In the pack lock Ben Toolis is replaced by Grant Gilchrist and Ryan Wilson takes over from Cornell du Preez at No 8.
It’s the selection of Laidlaw, though, that offers the strongest clue as to Scotland’s state of mind and the nature of their debrief this week
“Greig is back in form and it’s a credit to him he is so quickly,” says Townsend. “He is an important player for Scotland given that he was captain for two or three seasons.
“He’s there to help John Barclay in the leadership, with Ryan Wilson our other vice-captain. We saw him at training doing well and could just tell with his energy around the group. When he came on he was one of the players in that second half who was taking the game to Wales.
“We really believe in these players. We underperformed – it happens now and again – but this is an excellent group of players who have shown that over the last year.
“The responsibility lies
with the coaches and me as head coach. We put a team out to perform; whether it is selection or how we prepared, the first thing we look at is how we could have done it better.
“Then we look at the performance of the players and the groups within our team, and there are certain things we didn’t do which we should do naturally – whether it is working round the corner in defence, or scanning what the opposition are doing. We’ve spent a lot of time reinforcing that this week.”
France have made three injury enforced changes from the team that should arguably have nicked a win against Ireland.
Veteran fly-half Lionel Beauxis – he of the siege gun boot – makes his first appearance in nearly six years as he comes in for Mathieu Jalibert while Marco Tauliegne replaces No.8 Kevin Gourdon who has ankle injury.
Talented La Rochelle centre Geoffrey-Doumayrou is drafted in for Henry Chavancy who has not taken part in training all week with an eye socket injury.
Scrum-half Baptiste Serin comes onto a strong bench for the injured Antoine Dupont.