Hogg disappointed as Scots go down
By Mark Stevens
22/11/20
Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg could not his his disappointment after seeing his side slip to a 22-15 defeat against France in the Autumn Nations Cup at BT Murrayfield.
The Scots, who also included Exeter Chiefs stars Jonny Gray, Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne in their match-day squad, saw their five-game winning streak brought to a halt by Les Blues, whose success has put them firmly on course for the competition’s final in a fortnight, that is as long as they do not slip up against Italy next weekend.
In a game where the hosts offered plenty, both in attack and defence, it was an error by Hogg in the final minute which saw Scotland’s hopes of clinching a share of the spoils go begging.
With his side seven points down and the clock in the red, the Exeter Chiefs full-back failed to find touch with a penalty that would have put his side within touching distance of the French try-line.
Hogg’s overcooked effort brought about the final whistle and ended Scotland’s hopes of recording a sixth straight Test match win, equalling a feat achieved only twice in the Dark Blues’ modern history, the last by David Sole’s 1990 Grand Slam winners.
Having beaten France earlier this year in the Six Nations Championship, there was to be no repeat triumph, even though the two teams were deadlocked 12-12 at the break after kickers Duncan Weir and Thomas Ramos had shared four penalties apiece.
Weir and Ramos both added another in the second period, but it was Virimi Vakatawa’s converted try which proved the difference come the final whistle.
Post-game, a disappointed Hogg gave his reaction to events, stating: ““Yeah, I made a schoolboy error it’s as simple as that but look, I thought we played well for 78 minutes of that game. A couple of mistakes didn’t quite go our way and we’re old enough and ugly enough now to realise we’ve made a mistake. I don’t need to be told a million times about it.
“I thought for 78 minutes of that game we were in control. I thought we nullified everything that France were coming here to do.But unfortunately we’ve made a couple of mistakes and you can’t do that in international rugby. It’s as simple as that.
“We shut France down. They wanted to bring a running game but all they did was kick to us. We can take a huge amount of confidence away from the way we defended but there are some disappointed boys there and rightly so.
“The positive thing is we realise where we’ve made mistakes. We can go back to the drawing board and try to make amends. But the frustrating thing is we know we’re a lot better than that.It’s fine people making mistakes but it’s the fact that sometimes we compound our errors and that’s what cost us.
“We went from being in a position to score a try to virtually 90 seconds later conceding three. In that time we gave away three penalties which is compounding errors and not what we’re about. We’ve not turned into a bad team overnight. We know where we’re going wrong and we’re excited about our next challenge.”
Scotland’s winning run has come to an end, but head coach Townsend is still proud of the way his side have handled everything the year has thrown at them so far.
He said: “If you look over 2020 we have shown commitment, togetherness and shown we are tough to break down and beat. That was another game that underlined that. But we had penalties against us and errors of execution that we know we have to eradicate if we are a team that wins these games and reaches its potential.”