The France head coach Marc Lievremont could not hide his frustration despite seeing his team kickstart their Six Nations campaign with a 22-13 victory over Scotland in Paris. Lievremont saw his fly-half Lionel Beauxis kick five penalties and convert the flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo's try while his team defended well, restricting the Scots to a converted try by Thom Evans and two penalties by Phil Godman. But Lievremont - whose side lost 30-21 to Ireland last weekend - knows there is plenty of room for improvement in many departments after an error-strewn display at the Stade de France. "We are happy in two respects - firstly there is a satisfaction that we won, secondly France never gave up and continued to fight," he said.
"But there were a lot of mistakes that can be avoided. We didn't show our potential and we have to improve in the future. "I was expecting to have a good victory and spend a nice Valentine's Day evening with my wife but it looks like I will have to spend tonight looking at the video." Lievremont gave credit to Scotland, who lost their second Six Nations match in six days after their 26-13 defeat to Wales last Sunday. But he admitted his team, who were only 6-3 ahead at half-time, did not help themselves with error after error.
"It was the Scotland we were expecting," he added. "They were looking for revenge, were extremely aggressive and they started the match well, unlike us. "We had a few turnovers we couldn't take advantage of. But I am disappointed with our precision and there was a multitude of handling, kicking and positional faults. There is a lot of work to do." Scotland's head coach Frank Hadden felt his team produced an improved display following their opening defeat by Wales, although he admitted too many handling errors and soft penalties had proved costly. But he was also aggrieved by some crucial decisions by the referee George Clancy and his team.
Maxime Medard appeared to pass the ball forward as he set up Ouedraogo for the try, and Hadden felt Kelly Brown had a try wrongly disallowed for Scotland following a scrum deep in French territory. "We talked all week about the need to be brave and we were," Hadden said. "We talked all week about the need to be ambitious and we were. We matched the French with one try each in Paris. "We knew there would be some handling errors. Unfortunately we got too many handling errors." Hadden added: "In our opinion we scored a perfectly good try that was disallowed. And there may have been some doubt over the French try." *PA Sport