Scotland boss Andy Robinson criticised his side's lack of a cutting edge after France claimed an 18-9 victory at Murrayfield.
'We didn't respect the ball', claims Scotland boss
Scotland head coach Andy Robinson criticised his side's lack of a cutting edge after France opened their RBS Six Nations account with a win at Murrayfield.
Controversial French centre Mathieu Bastareaud enjoyed a fairytale return to Test rugby with two tries as Robinson's first Six Nations game in charge of Scotland ended in an 18-9 defeat.
Pre-tournament favourites France dominated possession and territory throughout the match and could have won by a greater margin had they been more clinical in the final third.
But Robinson insisted it was a case of missed opportunities for his own side, saying: "The most significant difference was in that first half, the two chances that they had, they took beautifully.
"And when we had various opportunities, we didn't hold onto the ball, particularly in the first half.
"But also I thought the French scramble defence, particularly through (Imanol) Harinordoquy, was very good.
Testing
"We needed to control the scoreboard in this game and we were unable to do that through turning over possession in our half during that first 30 minutes.
"That was not really respecting the ball, the ball being knocked out of our hands on four or five occasions."
Scotland were overpowered by Les Bleus at the scrum at times, and Robinson believes his forwards will learn lessons from what was a testing afternoon.
"We respect the French scrum and they're a very good scrummaging side," he said.
"Our young lads have learnt a lot today and certainly when we got the hit right, we had two or three powerful scrums.
"But we've got to get the consistency of that right."
Robinson admitted the substitution of fly-half Phil Godman early in the second half - which was greeted with ironic cheers at Murrayfield - was tactical.
But he refused to criticise the Edinburgh man, who was replaced by Hugo Southwell, with Chris Paterson moving to stand-off.
"I thought we needed to establish some field position," Robinson said.
"If we were going to keep turning the ball over in our half, it was going to be difficult for us."
Progress
Two pluses arising from the defeat were the performances of wing Sean Lamont and number eight Johnnie Beattie.
Robinson applauded the contribution of both players but warned that every member of the team would be under scrutiny ahead of Saturday's game with Wales in Cardiff.
"We'll look at every position," he said. "There's a six-day turnaround.
"We certainly need to improve the way we defended. A lot of that's in the mind."
And despite losing his second game in a row after winning his opening two matches last November, Robinson is confident Scotland are heading in the right direction.
"We've got a belief in what we're trying to do," said Robinson, who revealed prop Alasdair Dickinson suffered a sore neck on Sunday.
"That's the work that's in progress and the work we're developing over the next three or four matches."
