Marc Lievremont praises pack

Published on Sunday 7 February 2010 23:21

WHILE the French media hovered around Mathieu Bastareaud full of praise for the restored centre, the team's head coach Marc Lievremont sought to shift the spotlight after a winning Six Nations start back on to his entire team.

It was the fourth time in five opening championship games that France have beaten the Scots, and the second for Lievremont in his three years at the helm, but he is under pressure to instil consistency in his team's performances to match their undoubted flair.

He was well-served by a pack in which Imanol Harinordoquy was the stand-out player and deservedly won the man of the match award, and the front five won the crucial battle of the set-piece. But it was Bastareaud who provided the finishing touches, on his first outing since making false assault allegations in New Zealand last June that led to him being suspended from Test rugby and attempting suicide.

"We are very happy, obviously," said Lievremont. "Happy for his performance but also the team performance. Mathieu was just like any other player today. The management certainly did not put any extra pressure on him.

"As a team I think we need to improve our finishing, but we also had to deal with a good, brave and enterprising Scottish team today; a better team than we played here two years ago.

"I admire their rugby, the way they try to play, but it's true they lack a little bit of firepower. I feel Scotland have definitely made progress, but today they were up against an even better French team than they were two years ago."

Lievremont praised the work of his pack but insisted that he expected more points to have come from "our vast dominance in the scrummage". He would not be drawn on whether a winning start provided the confidence for his team to go on and win their first championship since the back-to-back successes of 2006-7.

"Our ambition of course is to win the competition," he said. "But, at the moment, I would say we're happy with our performance so far."

Harinordoquy, who fell out of favour earlier in his career but has come back to form with Biarritz, was similarly delighted to be leaving Murrayfield with the first match points in the bag.

"I'm very happy to win against a Scotland team who have a big heart," he said. "It's very hard to play against them because they play from the beginning to the end. We had to work very hard, but you need tries to win and we managed that, and that was the difference."

More Six Nations match reports:

• England 30 - 17 Wales: Martin Johnson salutes progress after England survive late fightback

• Ireland 29 - 11 Italy: Gordon D'Arcy knows better must come from Ireland

More on Scotland vs France:

• Stuart Bathgate: Robinson requires a creative spark to cause fireworks

• Iain Morrison: Pass marks for efforts but Godman's error-strewn display is thrown into painful relief by tidy Trinh-Duc

• Andy Robinson rues missed opportunities

• Mistakes haunt Scotland captain Cusiter

• France coach praises pack

• Scotland vs France: Player ratings