French are getting better, Laidlaw warns

Greig Laidlaw, the Scotland captain, knows how France feel ahead of their Six Nations clash at the Stade de France in Paris today

Pipped at the death by England at Twickenham last weekend, their two previous games in Paris have seen Les Bleus beaten by two points by the tenacious yet overpowered Wallabies, followed by the All Blacks weathering a ferocious late onslaught to win by five points.

Despite their new coach, the disciplinarian Guy Novès, making them difficult to beat, they have just lost three games they ought to have won.

Although Scotland have prevailed in their last two major tests, it is not so long since they were in France's position, where good performances were not matched by results.

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"France are a very dangerous side who are disappointed with their recent form because they have been playing well but haven't been winning," Laidlaw said.

"But they are getting better and better and they'll be highly motivated this week, getting back in front of their home people as they try to notch up their first win in a while. So we know it's going to be a tough test for us."

For all France's travails, Scotland's last win at the Stade de France came when they triumphed in the final Five Nations championship in 1999.

They have been frustratingly close on the past two Six Nations trips to Paris, eventually losing both by seven points, and in a World Cup warm-up game in 2015 they had an easy penalty to draw but instead went for the win.

However, Laidlaw feels that under Novès, France have become a far more potent and focused side.

"There is a reason why no Scotland team have won there in such a long time," he said. "It's a hard place to win for any side, but the team that won in '99 inspire us, for sure, so that rather than seeing our record there as a burden, we will go out there determined to win.

"We ended one record at the weekend [against Ireland] when we got our first opening win in the Six Nations since 2006, and '99 was a good few years before that. We know what we want to do but we're not getting ahead of ourselves - it's going to be a tough, tough game and we really need to be smart out there."

Laidlaw added that, though the win over Ireland was "one of those moments you play the game for", the euphoria has long since dissipated and been replaced with a sobering analysis of the threat France pose.

The scrumhalf has been impressed with their power - he has already been on the wrong end of Louis Picamoles' brilliance this year when the No8 scored an outstanding winning try for Northampton against Gloucester - and their pace, particularly of his young French counterpart Baptiste Serin and a back three that counterattacks from deep.

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Yet for Laidlaw the real challenge is to overcome the positive effect of Novès, an astute coach who has transformed France in much the same way as Vern Cotter did with Scotland.

"Guy Novès has vast coaching experience and he'll know already not to take us lightly, and I don't think he will because Vern and Guy know each other so well from their time coaching in club rugby with Clermont and Toulouse," Laidlaw said.

Many of the Glasgow team which form the backbone of this Scotland side have already won in Paris this season, beating Racing 92 in a brutal encounter before Christmas in the European Champions Cup, so both they and Laidlaw know what Scotland need to do today.

"That first 20 minutes, it's very, very important for us playing away from home," he said.

"If you can hear the whistling from the crowd in France, you know you're doing something right in the game.

"Although we'll need to play for 80 minutes, if we focus on the start of the game, hopefully we can turn the crowd against them a bit early on. If we do that, we're halfway there."