Scotland head coach Bryan Easson rued his side’s first-half performance in their 28-8 defeat to France at Scotstoun in Round 3 of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations.
The hosts put France under pressure for large parts of the game but were unable to convert that possession and territory into points in the first half, leaving themselves 28-3 down at the break.
Scrum-half Laure Sansus’ double, as well as tries from Player of the Match Jessy Tremoulière and captain Gaëlle Hermet before the interval put Les Bleues in complete control in Glasgow.
The home side did come out and assert themselves in the second half, and actually won that period 5-0 after Chloe Rollie’s try with ten minutes to go, but it was too little too late for Scotland.
And Easson was disappointed with the first half, saying: “It was a disappointing first half, we didn’t fire a shot in that period and we were really frustrated at half time, that was not what we are all about.
“Scrums and lineouts inside the attacking zone we’ve got to get better at.
“It’s the same on both sides of the ball I’ll be honest with you, I thought we attacked well and territorially we did quite well first half, we had good possession and then just let them off the hook.
“It was the same defensively as well, we let them off the hook with their scores in the first half, we had some good defensive sets but again just switched off at times, so we are learning, but what we’re getting sick and tired of is saying we’re getting better.”
The second half was much more pleasing for Easson, particularly as they discussed shutting France out and conceding zero points, with Les Bleues only coming close to threatening again late on.
Easson added: “We spoke at half time about nilling them and making sure they didn’t score, which was good, but also putting scoreboard and territorial pressure on them and we did that a lot better.
“We genuinely are putting teams under pressure, we’re just letting them off too easily.
“We are improving, and that’s what we need to do, we’ve played against England, we’ve played against France, two of the top three teams in the world, and I’ll be honest with you we don’t look out of place one bit.
“But then we get chances, we need to start turning the screw and being that little bit tougher.
“That second half is what we’re all about, but the first half just wasn’t good enough.”
Scotland face Italy and Ireland in the final two matches of their Championship and Easson is determined to end the campaign on a high.
“We need to turn 20, 30, 40-minute performances into 80-minute performances,” he said.
“We all took some good points against England; we all took some really good things against Wales and we’ve taken some good stuff against France.
“It’s about putting those little bits together and making sure the concentration is on at all times.”
