Stuart Hogg knows he’s still got some making up to do with the Scotland fans even after his outstanding display in Paris and he intends to put things fully right against Wales.
The Scotland full-back may not have been the official Man of the Match in the RBS 6 Nations opener at the Stade de France, but most observers had him as the outstanding player on the field including the authoritative French sports paper L’Equipe, who ranked both Hogg and Mark Bennett ahead of any Frenchman despite the Scots going down 15-8.
The full-back, still only 22, cut open the French defence almost at will with his counterattacking running and perhaps Scotland could have exploited his breaks better with more than just the one try.
It was a remarkable turnaround for Hogg, as he hadn’t played for four weeks due to a hamstring injury, and also considering his last 6 Nations match, when he lost the head against Wales and was sent-off for a crude late tackle on Dan Biggar.
Now Wales are coming to BT Murrayfield next Sunday, like Scotland having lost their championship opener, and Hogg clearly feels he has to prove a point.
“Mistakes will happen, you apologise and move on and that’s what I’ve tried to do,” he said. “I’d actually put it out of my mind until you mentioned it!”
However he accepts that with Wales the opponents this week, the red card a major factor in Scotland’s humiliating 51-3 defeat in Cardiff that ran down the curtain on the Scott Johnson era is going to get talked about again.
“Clearly I’m hoping to make amends for that, but I’ll do that by taking each game as it comes and continuing to turn in some good performances,” he said.
“This match was frustration with the result, but the pleasing thing is we know where we went wrong. We’re confident about putting things right in training and massively excited to be taking on Wales next week.”
The way Scotland took the game to France with ball in hand illustrates the confidence in the new game plan flowing through the team, he added.
“Vern (Cotter) wants us to play an exciting brand of rugby and hopefully we have done that over the last while. We had a good autumn and we are hoping to have a good Six Nations.
“It’s very much about going out there and enjoying your rugby by being able to express ourselves. There’s boundaries obviously, but the gameplan allows us to play a style we love and hopefully we can continue.”
One area where he knows Scotland have to improve is discipline.
“There were errors made, myself included,” he said. “When France had the ball the discipline wasn’t great from us, we had a high penalty count against us and that allowed France to get into the game and into the right areas where their driving maul was fairly effective.
“We watched Wales’ game against England closely on Friday and it’s going to a tough test, but we know where they are strong and where their weaknesses lie, and feel we can exploit them.”
Scotland will have a nervous 48 hours as the knocks and bruises sustained in what was an intensely physical game in front of a capacity 80,000 crowd settle down.
Chief doubt for Wales would appear to be wing Tommy Seymour, who took a hip knock early on and eventually had to leave the field after 18 minutes for Dougie Fife, who went on to score the game’s only try just before half-time.
Seymour’s chances of making the Wales game are “uncertain” according to the team spokesman but a further five players who suffered injury were not bracketed in the same way as the wing, suggesting they are likely to be okay for selection, with an extra day’s recovery this week.
Alex Dunbar, who left the field nursing an arm, has a neck/shoulder problem, while the others being assessed are Mark Bennett, Rob Harley, Geoff Cross and Alasdair Strokosch, all with leg injuries.