Recap: Scotland vs France LIVE | Summer Series
Follow all the action from the World Cup warm-up match on RugbyPass as Scotland host France at Murrayfield.
Keep up to date with the latest score, stats and join the conversation from anywhere in the world in our Live Match Centre (click here).
Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw is coming into the match insisting that the team chosen last weekend by Gregor Townsend did not disgrace the jersey in the 32-3 defeat to France. He is now is confident that they will give a more accurate account of themselves against the same opponents.
The veteran scrum-half sat out last weekend's defeat in Nice and is one of 14 players brought back into the starting line-up for the return match in Edinburgh. The five-try loss provoked a big backlash even though it was only the first of four World Cup warm-up games for Townsend's squad.
Laidlaw is sure that lessons have been learned, claiming that the players last time out had not let themselves or their country down. "That's certainly not the case," Laidlaw said at the end of the week where it was confirmed that Jim Mallinder will become the new SRU director of rugby.
"The group are tight-knit. I've been involved in performances that have not gone to plan before and it's for a number of reasons. We'd probably rather it happened last week than going into a World Cup.
"We'll take it on the chin and whether that be from how we trained all week or how we travelled, we need to look at all of that for away games. But this week is not an away game, we're home at Murrayfield and we simply need to concentrate on that and make sure we get the next 80 minutes right."
Scotland were on the back foot from the opening minutes in last week's five-try loss and Laidlaw knows that tightening up in defence is a major job. "We learned we can't be soft defensively, especially against a team like France who have world-class attackers within their ranks, as I know well from playing out in France," he said.
"We need to be defensively really sound. We come back to the basics of the game, being really aggressive, holding each other accountable and defending properly.
"If we do that, we can get our hands on the ball and impose our game in attack on any opposition. We have proved that in the past and this is another opportunity for the playing group selected to go out and do that."
Townsend will name his RWC squad after the first of the two games against Georgia that have still to come, and assistant coach Mike Blair said that some places have yet to be decided.
"You know, we've got a decent amount, a number that we're fairly sure about, but there are a couple of positions that are still potentially up for grabs," Blair said. "I won't give it much more than that.
" It might have been last week that a couple of guys didn't take their opportunity and they've opened for the 23 that are involved in this game. We're really looking forward to seeing how these guys seize their opportunity and put their hands up for later selection."
WATCH: A six-week ban has put the World Cup participation of French lock Paul Gabrillagues in jeopardy
Latest Comments
LOL thats the same mentality the French saying about the Top 14. Why change their ridiculous comp if its performing well with investors?
There is always better JWH.
It depends really what you want out of Super Rugby and NPC. Currently Super Rugby fills both niche’s, it has the up and commers as well as the stars performing at the top. Reducing further obviously improves further on what has been the reason everybody is enjoying this season.
There is definitely a question of balance and what going further that way removes. But theres a few reasons. What coaches are telling us is it is also a struggle to find the talent to fill out a strong SR side. There is talk of increasing financial constraints. Currently there is a lopsided (random) amount of derby home and away match ups in each conference, so going 5v5 instead of 6v6 may mean we have a full derby round for each conference (currently I think they play just 3 teams twice), or even squeeze in a full dbl round comp. Going a larger number of teams means they need to go much larger to fairer league setup.
But they need to add or remove JWH, one or the other, and I was merely pointing out that adding, like you’re suggestion, is likely going to introduce just what we all (or at least what the person I was replying to was saying) think the comp has been remedied of, having a weak team. The 5v5 I referenced was 3 Aus teams, with the other two filling the landscape their, and 5 here. That’s what NZR wanted to kick off for the COVID year but ARU threw a hissy fit. If going to 10 is the right thing to do maybe it’s an NZ team that needs to be dropped, so Moana would remain here and Drua continue to be with the aussies, thats the other possible 5 v 5 setup (which would just be 10 if they found a way for all to play even games).
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