Blair Kinghorn feels more comfortable at full-back as he makes his first Scotland start at 15 in almost three years

Blair Kinghorn said he loved being back in the full-back role as he helped Scotland to a morale-boosting 25-21 win over France in a warm-up match for the Rugby World Cup.

Scotland's Blair Kinghorn thought he carried well in the win over France at Scottish Gas Murrayfield and felt more comfortable at full-back. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The Scots had trailed 21-3 at half-time at Murrayfield but came storming back, scoring three second-half tries through Darcy Graham, Pierre Schoeman and Dave Cherry.

Kinghorn was starting a match for Scotland at full-back for the first time in almost three years following attempts to convert him into a stand-off. The sudden retirement of Stuart Hogg put the brakes on that, with Kinghorn now needed at 15 and he admitted he felt more comfortable playing there than at 10. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “Obviously I’ve played most of my career there. I have the ability to cover 10 if needed, but I feel that 15 is my better position - I feel like the team can get the best out of me there.

“I loved being back there. I feel very comfortable, I feel like I’m able to affect the game in a really positive way with my carries, so it was great to start out there. I was happy it was a dry ball, because last week it was absolutely pouring down. So it was nice to get a dry ball and have some good carries.”

Kinghorn attributed Scotland’s second-half turnaround to their ability to look after the ball better after the interval. “It felt like two completely different games to play in, the first half compared to the second half,” said the Edinburgh player. “We held on to the ball a bit better at the start of the second half. The boys had some real energy about them, defended better. We just held on to the ball and we caused them trouble through multi-phase attack, which we didn’t do in the first half.”