News

Scotland down but not out

February 08 2010

Chris Cusiter insists Scotland have not gone backwards since the autumn internationals despite suffering a dispiriting defeat to France in their Six Nations opener.

Mathieu Bastareaud stole the headlines with his first two Test tries to complete a fairytale comeback following his high-profile fall from grace.

The monster centre helped pre-tournament favourites France wrap up an 18-9 win at Murrayfield which was far more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.

But Scotland captain Cusiter is adamant his side's defeat came as the result of poor defending for both Bastareaud's scores.

"It's not a step back," he said of yesterday's defeat.

"Ultimately, the game hinged on those two tries.

"We never made two defensive errors in one game which were as serious as that in the autumn."

"If you take away those two lapses, we were in the game, we were playing some good rugby, we were getting some good width on the ball and making a couple of line breaks.

"There's obviously a bit of work to do on our finishing; we didn't react well to a couple of situations when we got deep into their 22.

"We've got a lot to work on but we've certainly got a lot to build on.

"It's the first game - of course things weren't going to go absolutely smoothly.

"But we'll look at the video and work out how we can improve for next week."

Although Scotland did go close to crossing the tryline on more than one occasion, France dominated territory and possession and only heroic tackling from Thom Evans and Sean Lamont denied them further scores.

"You have to say, on the day, the better team won," said Cusiter.

"They executed really well in that first half.

"We were under a lot of pressure in that first half, we were defending a lot."

Scotland's perennial problem of panicking with the ball in hand was also in evidence again.

"We need to keep believing in what we're doing," she Cusiter.

"We have to just finish these opportunities off a lot better, be a bit more composed when we get into their 22."

With Scotland having now gone three games without a try, Cusiter added: "Our try-count is something that we need to up.

"I think we're making breaks, we're causing teams problems.

"We just need to take that next step."

France head coach Marc Lievremont and skipper Thierry Dusautoir were both loathe to single out the contribution of Bastareaud, whose performance went some way to repairing his battered reputation.

The 21-year-old was playing for his country for the first time since falsely claiming he had been assaulted on a night out during their tour to New Zealand last summer.

The fallout saw Bastareaud contemplate suicide and flanker Dusautoir said of his renaissance: "I'm very happy for Mathieu."

Toulouse star Dusautoir reckons defeat yesterday would have been fatal for France's title hopes.

He said of the victory: "It's something very, very important.

"Our aim is to win the Six Nations competition.

"If we hadn't have won the first game, we couldn't have achieved that."