Six Nations: Laidlaw boots Scots to glory as France fade

Sport360 staff 01:22 12/02/2018
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  • French ill-discipline allowed Scotland to take control at Murrayfield.

    A relieved Greig Laidlaw has demanded improvements from Scotland despite seeing them come from behind to see off France in the Six Nations.

    It took a faultless display of kicking from the recalled Laidlaw to get Scotland’s campaign back on track with a 32-26 win over Les Bleus in Edinburgh following another slow start.

    Scotland went into the game on the back of a humiliating defeat in Cardiff last week, and it looked as though they might be in for another tough afternoon after going 10-0 behind in the opening minutes before the scrum-half led the fightback with 22 points from the boot along with tries from Huw Jones and Sean Maitland.

    France faded badly in the second period after flying out of the blocks with a brace from winger Teddy Thomas, and Laidlaw admitted the hosts need to improve against tournament favourites England in two weeks time if they are to pick anything up from the game.

    “We can beat anyone but I think we will have to play better than we did today to beat England,” the former skipper said. “England are a good team and have showed what a great defence they have.

    “We might need to look at kicking options and play smartly when that game rolls around but for the minute, we will analyse ourselves in depth and come back better in a couple of weeks.”

    He added: “The second-half performance was good, (but) we’ll have to look at the first half.

    “It’s going to have to go up a notch to beat England.

    “England are playing really well again at the minute.

    “Clearly they’re on a big run so it’ll be a tough game, but is it a game if we turn up and play the right rugby we’re going to be in? I believe so.”

    Laidlaw’s inclusion marked an intention to deviate slightly from the free-flowing rugby that Scotland impressed with so much during the autumn, and it eventually paid off as they got their first win of the campaign to the relief of the players and coaching staff, who found themselves 26-20 down with 20 minutes to go before their superior fitness told.

    The Clermont man, who later shifted to fly-half as the disappointing Finn Russell was substituted, admitted lessons had been learned from last week, saying: “We are relieved.
    Sometimes Test-match Rugby is not ideal.

    “In the first half France were slowing our ball up so sometimes you just have to take your medicine, get downfield and play a bit of a kicking game and I thought we did that today.

    “Do we want to kick the ball away? Not really, but are we willing to do it to put pressure on them? Absolutely.

    “I think we found that balance today to stay in the game and force France to do something special.

    “That was a real learning curve from last week to this week so we are delighted to get that shift.” Not surprisingly Scotland coach Gregor Townsend was pleased his team were able to bounce back after the disappointing loss to Wales last weekend.

    “I’m happier than last week, that’s for sure!” he said.

    “The effort it takes to win a Test match is huge, and when you have to do it being behind for most of the game, that shows the character of the squad and the togetherness.

    “We were a bit more direct, and we got our rewards.” He also said the decision to switch Laidlaw to No10 during the game was pre-planned.

    EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 11: Teddy Thomas of France gets past Finn Russell of Scotland and goes on to score his sides first try during the NatWest Six Nations match between Scotland and France at Murrayfield on February 11, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

    Finn Russell, seen here trying to stop Teddy Thomas, had a disappointing afternoon and was replaced on 65 minutes by Ali Price.

    “It was mentioned during the week (moving Laidlaw to fly-half ), and we ran a couple of plays this morning,” Townsend continued.

    “It was seeing how Greig was, and it looked like he could last the 80, but Ali Price brings so much from the bench (at scrum-half ).

    “He really upped the pace and Greig’s kicking was pretty good, so bringing Ali onto the ball was pretty positive to the team.”

    Surprisingly Townsend did not empty his bench, which is so often the norm in modern Test rugby, opting to keep faith with his side in the ascendancy and only using four of his possible eight replacements.

    Instead he limited his tweaks to Jamie Bhatti and Ben Toolis (both on 58 minutes) and David Denton and Price (both on 65 minutes), all who had strong impacts.

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