'Scotland bum cheek away from converting' in Paris
Scotland were "a bum cheek away from converting" as they concluded their Six Nations campaign with defeat against France, says head coach Gregor Townsend.The Scots went down 35-16 in Paris and end the tournament in fourth place while their hosts clinched the title at England's expense.The visitors made nine visits to the French 22 and forced their opponents to attempt over 200 tackles, but scored only a solitary try through Darcy Graham.Townsend rued his team's luck, with Tom Jordan's score late in the first half ruled out as a prone Blair Kinghorn had been hauled into touch a phase earlier.Shortly after the break, Finn Russell's off-load went to ground, and Louis Bielle-Biarrey finished an 80-metre French breakaway."We asked the players to deliver a performance of effort and physicality and they did that," Townsend told ITV. "Our forwards played outstanding rugby at times, really fronted up.
"We didn't get the breaks - the bad luck before half-time [with a disallowed try] and a mistake and they scored just after half-time. "We were a bum cheek away from converting in the first half when Blair was just in touch. You need to have patience and accuracy and that was little bit missing."Scotland opened their campaign with a staccato home win over Italy, before being comprehensively beaten by Ireland a week later.They dominated England for long spells at Twickenham but poor finishing and wayward goalkicking denied them a fifth straight Calcutta Cup triumph.Last weekend, they raced into a 20-point lead against Wales, but wound up winning by a single score after losing their way in the second half.Asked if Scotland deserved to place higher in the table, Townsend replied: "No, if we don't win when we have a lot of the game, that's where we are going to finish."It is a very tough competition. Teams can't play well every game and no-one won a Grand Slam."We are a quality side, it just didn't go our way this year."
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