We have to beat France whatever it takes, says Watson
● Watson admits way Scotland play against France will be secondary to a positive result
Defeats don’t get much uglier than the one Scotland suffered in Cardiff at the weekend but Scotland flanker Hamish Watson would gladly jettison the aesthetics again this Sunday if it means a different, more positive end result.
Scotland’s reputation as the resurgent flair team of northern hemisphere rugby took a humbling hit with that 34-7 demolition by Wales in the Six Nations opener and they now face a make-or-break test against France at home.
The French also lost their first match, although in vastly different circumstances, pushing the world’s third ranked team, and many peoples’ tip for the title, Ireland, to a lastgasp, drop-goal finish in Paris.
Scotland may have one more try to their name than Joe Schmidt’s battle-hardened outfit but Ireland stand-off Johnny Sexton’s magical boot has provided a more tangible yield than the 17 touchdowns Gregor Townsend’s men have run in since that tantalising autumn campaign began.
The Scotland players and coaches have been defending the gameplan, while acknowledging they didn’t execute it properly in Wales, but Watson had no hesitation when asked if he would accept a similar five-kick, tryless victory to the one the Irish achieved over Les Bleus.
“In this competition, I think you would, yeah,” said the Edinburgh openside, who was one of Scotland’s better performers in the Cardiff debacle.
“Obviously we want to score tries and play a good brand of rugby but I think it’s also a winning sport ,so you’ve got to take the win.”
Watson expressed admiration for the way the men in green dogged out a result against opposition who now come to Murrayfield smarting off the back of that stoppagetime agony.
“Anyone who can grind out that sort of victory by staying in the game, managing to get a late opportunity to win the game, and then taking it, then fair play to Ireland,” he said.
Watson stuck to the official script that Scotland won’t be abandoning the style of play which bore so much fruit last year but are intent on implementing it with more precision than they did at the Principality Stadium.
“I think we need to follow the gameplan a bit better,” said the 26-year-old. “Obviously we need to be physical upfront, get our defence right and start the game well.”
A good start would be, well, a start, after that frightful first 14 minutes on Saturday and Watson accepted the barrage of criticism that has followed.
“I’d say it’s expected to get a bit of a backlash after a loss
like that,” he said. “I don’t think many people were expecting it and the fans are probably quite right to be a bit hacked off after a game like that, but no-one’s hurting more than the players, so we need to put it right as well.”
Scotland were starved of ball for much of the match against Wales and Watson knows that has to change.
“We need to be a lot more clinical,” he said. “There were far too many errors in that game. We lost a lot of ball first phase, I think we got over eight phases once in the game, so that’s something that’s not really acceptable for us and it’s something we need to work on. If we can build the phases we’ve seen how teams struggle when we start to multi-phase.
“We need to go out and be positive and obviously it’s a must-win game for us if we want to have anything to do with this championship. But it’s a must win for France as well, so it’s going to be a tough game and we’re being very positive this week and we’ve got to go out there and win.” l Scotland Under-20s have switched stand-off Callum Mclelland to inside centre for tomorrow’s junior Six Nations match against France at Broadwood.
The Edinburgh Rugby teenager wore the No 10 jersey in the 36-3 defeat at the hands of their Welsh counterparts in Colwyn Bay last Friday but will form a centre pairing with Ayr’s Stafford Mcdowall against the French.
Mclelland, 18, joined Edinburgh from rugby league side Castleford Tigers and qualifies for Scotland through his Ayrshire-born grandfather.
Ross Thompson of Glasgow Hawks takes over at stand-off.