Scotland fly-half Adam Hastings has spoken of his satisfaction in “executing” well against France at the weekend after a mixed display against Italy in Round Three.
The Scots are now on a two-match winning run in the Guinness Six Nations after triumphing 17-0 in Rome two weeks ago before powering past France in Round Four – 28-17.
That match at BT Murrayfield represented Hastings’ fourth consecutive start of the Championship – his 20th cap in all – in which he kicked 13 points and led a composed attacking display.
“I was disappointed with the Italy game,” Hastings explained.
“Personally, I think I was pretty inconsistent there, which was disappointing. I had time to let that stew, and then came out [against France] and looked to do the simple things in my job, and I think I did that.
“I’ve spoken before about how I tend to enjoy that pressure. I tend to go half decent when it’s on. A lot of it was self-inflected in the Italy game but I’m really pleased to come through that [against France].
“It’s obviously very pleasing. We’ve had a game plan and we’ve executed it really well.”
The 23-year-old opened the scoring on Sunday at BT Murrayfield with two penalties before France took the lead with a Damian Penaud try and Matthieu Jalibert conversion.
Mohamed Haouas then saw red and Scotland scored tries through Sean Maitland (2) and Stuart McInally to outdo Charles Ollivon’s riposte for Les Bleus.
Scotland are up to third in the Championship table ahead of their trip to Cardiff this weekend and boast the best defence with just four tries scored – Hastings paying tribute to new defence coach Steve Tandy.
“We’ve got two good wins now and will look to build on that momentum in the Wales game next week,” he added.
“Steve [Tandy, Scotland defence coach] has come in and has been brilliant.
“He’s given us a new lease of life there and, speaking to a few of the boys, we almost enjoy defending whereas maybe we didn’t used to.
‘It [defence] is a big strength of ours and we’re not afraid to put the ball deep and let teams have a crack at us, so it should be interesting.”
