Scotland 'ready to have real crack at World Cup' after taking France all the way

Gregor Townsend declared that Scotland were ready to have “a real crack at this World Cup” after pushing a full-strength France side all the way in a highly competitive warm-up match in Saint-Etienne.

Scotland's lock Richie Gray catches the ball from a line-out during the defeat by France.

The Scots lost 30-27 but fought back from 27-10 down midway through the second half to get it to 27-27 before conceding a late penalty which Thomas Ramos knocked over in the final minutes. Townsend will name his World Cup squad on Wednesday and praised his players’ staying power and their ability to deal with the hostile home crowd inside the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium.

“I was really proud of the 23 tonight and how they went about taking on a top side, and their focus was on winning the game, not on the World Cup,” said the Scotland coach. “They put their bodies on the line. The effort the players have put in over the last two months has transferred onto the field. We're fit enough to have a real crack at this World Cup and we'll have a lot of players putting their hands up for selection over the next few days.”

Scotland lost Ali Price to the sin-bin as they conceded a slew of penalties in the first half but were able to limit France to just one try in that period. “I think we were ambitious, accurate and very physical in our contacts and also defensively,” added Townsend. “We had to soak up a lot of pressure in that first half when we were a man down, but we just missed the first five-to-ten minutes of the second half. There were a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes and France got opportunities. But I am so proud of the togetherness, the effort, the skill that was on show there and we are gutted we didn't get anything out of that, really disappointed.”

Kyle Steyn’s try gave Scotland an early lead but France took control through scores from Romain Ntamack, Damian Penaud and Charlies Ollivon. The Scots then scored three tries in the final quarter – through Duhan van der Merwe, Rory Darge and Steyn again – before Ramos delivered the winning penalty. "I’m pretty devastated,” said Steyn. “We came out chasing a good start, and we got that. We said we had to come out second half and do the same and unfortunately we didn't do that. We've got to keep chasing that consistency. We played really well for 70 minutes, but for five minutes after half-time we let them in, and you can't do that against teams like France.”