Frustrated Hogg says Scotland 'chucked it away'

Stuart Hogg felt Scotland “chucked it away” in a 22-16 Six Nations defeat against France in Paris on Sunday.

Vern Cotter’s men were unable to end their 18-year wait for a victory in the French capital despite another try for in-form full-back Hogg, who marked his 50th cap by going over in the first half.

Tim Swinson also crossed for his first international try to put Scotland 16-13 up just after the break, but 17 points from the boot of the impressive Camille Lopez and a Gael Fickou try in the second half gave Les Bleus their first win of the tournament.

Scotland beat Ireland in their first Six Nations game, but could only claim a bonus point eight days later after they were overpowered by Guy Noves’ powerful side and came away with captain Greig Laidlaw on crutches and wearing a protective boot on his right foot.

John Hardie, John Barclay and Fraser Brown also sustained injuries and Hogg – who has now scored in four consecutive Six Nations games – said Scotland only had themselves to blame for their loss at Stade de France.

“It was tough going out there, France have a massive physical pack but we chucked it away in the end I think.” he told BBC Sport.

“Our errors cost us throughout the whole game we got ourselves in good positions as you saw for the first try. We showed patience in attack and got a try from it.

“But, we didn’t look after the ball, we didn’t respect it enough and ultimately that has cost us.”

Scotland head coach Cotter was left frustrated that his side were unable to be at their fluent best.

He said: “We’re not happy to lose the game. We’ll have a good look at some of the reasons we didn’t have control from start to finish.

“The game was a bit of a stop-start affair. We couldn’t get rhythm into our attack. We seemed to lose shape. But credit to France they put pressure on us. Coming away with one point is better than no points.

“We showed some real character. The guys dug in hard even losing a couple of players. We perhaps needed one more possession and field position but we didn’t get it, so credit to them.”