Scotland coach Frank Hadden was left to rue a catalogue of errors that led to his side's 27-6 defeat by France at Murrayfield.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden was left to rue a catalogue of errors that led to his side's 27-6 defeat by France at Murrayfield.
France scored three tries, two from Vincent Clerc and one from debutant Julien Malzieu, as they dominated the match.
Despite the visitors having more young and inexperienced players, it was Scotland who looked more nervous and multitude of errors cost them dear.
Hadden was left a frustrated figure after watching his side fail to perform and start their Six Nations campaign on a real sour note.
"Obviously the changing room is desperately disappointed by the performance," Hadden said.
"We made the sort of elementary errors that bedevilled us at the critical stage during the World Cup.
"That was extremely disappointing - but let's not take anything away from the quality performance of the French. They played with tremendous pace and I thought their defence was outstanding.
"We created a few chances but they shut the door very quickly. If we got past their front line they scrambled very well to keep us out."
Out of luck
Hadden also pointed to two of the French tries which involved an element of fortune with handy bounces going the way of Les Bleus.
"But there's also no doubt the bounce of the oddly-shaped ball played a part in the afternoon," Hadden added.
"Without taking anything away from the French, a bouncing ball played a part in all of their tries.
"When we hacked through in similar situations the ball certainly didn't bounce well for us.
"They kept us out of the game after half time when we wanted a flying start and the possession stats must be in their favour.
"Ultimately we didn't give the supporters who we desperately wanted to do well for the win nor did we give ourselves the flying start in this Six Nations that we needed."
Welsh test
Despite such a bad start to the Six Nations, Hadden is expecting a vastly improved performance when his men travel to Cardiff to face Wales next week - although they will be riding high after they beat England at Twickenham.
"There's a very short and tough turnaround before next week's game but we know our side is capable of playing better.
"We are respectful of the Welsh getting off to a good start on Saturday but we will be going there determined t produce the kind of shock they did yesterday.
"There's no doubt that everyone who loses their first game in the championship faces a daunting task but it doesn't mean to say we are not determined to have a big part to play in this championship.
"We know we have a mountain to climb next week but we certainly believe we are capable of playing better than we played today and we know the Wales side well."
Hadden also pointed the finger at referee Alain Rolland, who he thought penalized his side too often during the match.
"The French did a magnificent job of slowing the ball up. Full credit to them for making it impossible to win fast ball.
"We lost the penalty count which is normally the case with Alain (Rolland) and we'll have a really good look at that when we watch the game."
