SCOTLAND captain John Barclay says his side will counter the threat of the massive French forward pack at Murrayfield today by targeting the man tasked with putting them on the front foot – recalled fly-half Lionel Beauxis.
The Lyon stand-off, noted for his kicking game, was a shock selection by French coach Jacques Brunel to replace teenager Matthieu Jalibert who was injured on his Test debut in last weekend’s opening day Six Nations loss to Ireland in Paris.
But Scotland have focused on the 32-year-old Beauxis – picked for the first time since 2012 – as the man to stop as they chase a home victory.
“It’s that whole thing of trying to look in to teams and trying to guess what’s going to happen. But from selection, I guess they’ve picked a more traditional kicking stand-off,” Barclay said. “But look at the players in and around him, who are real running threats, you never quite know – and it’s quite a cliche with the French – what you are going to get. Equally you’ve got a guy who hasn’t played for France for six years. So, he’ll be very motivated himself.
“However, if you haven’t played Test match rugby for six years, we’ll be looking to put him under pressure.
“I think we spoke last week about trying to put Rhys [Patchell] under pressure and didn’t really do it. We weren’t very good defensively so we’ll be trying to bring a bit more line speed, we’ve looked at that a lot this week.”
After the disappointment of Cardiff, Barclay believes Scotland can win this one.
“We went over there last year and despite a whole load of injuries we almost came away with a win. They will come here and try to play physical rugby. But we need to meet that, but also play up-tempo rugby, and play with a lot more accuracy than last week.”
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