White: We must pounce on Bleu blunders

Published on Friday 1 February 2008 09:23

SCOTLAND skipper Jason White has set out the three basic tenets he believes can carry the side to victory against new look France, nicknamed the "Baby Bleus" at Murrayfield, writes BILL LOTHIAN.

According to the former Watsonian, Scotland's task starts with ensuring a watertight defence followed by strong scrums and line-outs.

"These are the basics and we'll look to build from there," said White. "With the right attitude being a given in this Scotland squad, the opening 20 minutes will be particularly important."

On their last Six Nations appearance at Murrayfield, against Italy when White was out injured, the team fell apart from the kick off to leak three tries and leave themselves far too much to do.

White said: "We have moved on a lot from that day and, helped by a World Cup campaign, have become far more mature. The opening 20 minutes will (nevertheless) be really important.

"France will be full of life and attacking vigour. We will need to shut them down and impose ourselves on them."

Within the Scottish tactical plan, expect heavy emphasis to be placed on counter-attacking.

"I suspect they will try and attack a lot but the potential is there to make mistakes also," noted White in putting his side on the alert to take every opportunity.