Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Neil Drysdale on the Six Nations: Scottish optimism extinguished in Paris as France run out easy winners

Scotland's Peter Horne takes on France's Romain Ntamack in yesterday's match.
Scotland's Peter Horne takes on France's Romain Ntamack in yesterday's match.

There was a lot of optimism in advance of Scotland’s Six Nations trip to Paris.

The French have really struggled in the championship in the last two years and hopes were high that Gregor Townsend’s team could record the Scots’ first win in the French capital for 20 years.

Well, the match wasn’t just a deflating experience for Gregor Townsend’s side, but it exposed an inconvenient truth. Yes, the 27-10 scoreline looks bad, but the reality is it could have been an awful lot worse.

The hosts had three tries disallowed – all correctly – and a man – Yoann Huget – in the sin bin in the first half. But, with the possible exception of Jamie Ritchie and Magnus Bradbury, all the star performers were French.

This abject display from the Scots – Ali Price’s late consolation try was really no consolation at all – served as a reminder of how much Gregor Townsend and his coaching staff rely on a few world-class stars.

In the absence of Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Huw Jones, their replacements were largely left clutching at straws. And shadows.

There have been plenty of Scottish collectives better than this who have come a cropper at the Stade de France.

And I remember Emile Ntamack scoring a last-minute try at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa to consign the Scots to a quarter-final tie with the All Blacks.

His son, Romain, is only 19, but was in a slightly different class from Peter Horne and his early try was a precursor of the misery which lay in store for the visitors.

Thereafter, the awesome Mathieu Bastereaud was like a European version of the late Jonah Lomu as he sparked chaos in the Scottish defence. He doesn’t always reach this level, but the player was a centre of excellence and it usually took two or three Scots to halt his progress.

Townsend’s men entered the Six Nations with high expectations. But they’ve lost two out of three matches and life could get worse in the next few weeks against Wales at home and England away.

If the Scots don’t win at least one of these contests, they will have gone backwards and the litany of errors in the last two tussles has been unacceptable at this level.

In a World Cup year, this was a harsh reality check. Scotland need to wrap a few players in cotton wool before travelling to Japan.

But, unfortunately, that isn’t an option in modern professional rugby.