Scotland’s defence coach Steve Tandy revealed Scotland have a plan to deal with French scrum-half Antoine Dupont when they face off at BT Murrayfield in Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations.
But the Welshman also emphasised the importance of Scotland sticking to their core principles as they come up against a France side tipped for the title after their 30-24 victory over Ireland last Saturday.
Tandy knows his team will face a stern test, having narrowly lost to Wales 20-17 last weekend, with French skipper Dupont a particular threat.
Asked about specific preparations to deal with the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Player of the Championship, as well as in-form Clermont winger Damian Penaud, Tandy replied to BT Sport: “Just those two? There are a few other boys. Some boys who are going to move it around a bit.
“We know what’s coming. The thing is with France, they are an unbelievable team. They can go through the front door. They can go round the back.
“Obviously the nine is probably one of the best nines in the world, if not the best nine in the world at probing around the ruck.
“So you have to be ultra-vigilant around that and probably have a couple of subtleties of strategy in and around that.
“Going into France there will be slight tweaks in and around the nine and how he plays compared to the Welsh nine. Most of it, we tend to look in the mirror and see how we were on the weekend and grade ourselves on the standards we set.”
While Scotland were beaten at Principality Stadium in Round 2, Tandy’s defence was as impressive as ever, conceding just the one try from a rolling maul.
And having transformed the Scottish defence since coming in just over two years ago, Tandy explained that most of the credit should go to the players.
He added: “The boys are the ones who drive it and they’ve been unbelievable to work with. We’ve had real buy-in.
“We made a couple of tweaks to the system when we came in, but the boys have asked really good questions and are getting the understanding of what we want to become.”
Meanwhile, Scottish prop Zander Fagerson also reflected on the Wales defeat and spoke to BT Sport about learning from mistakes.
“It’s about licking your wounds and making sure we get right the things we didn’t do,” he said.
“There’s plenty still to be excited about. We’ve got to put our best foot forward and make sure we learn our lessons.”
PLAY GUINNESS SIX NATIONS FANTASY RUGBY
