Scott Johnson will continue to back Duncan Weir through his “growing pains” as the future at fly-half for Scotland after the 22-year-old was bitten hard in Saturday’s 19-17 loss to France.
Two weeks after Weir was the hero with his winning drop goal in the last minute in Rome, his hasty floated pass gave France a crucial lifeline with Yoann Huget’s interception and try as the visitors won their fourth successive game at Murrayfield and their 15th win in 16 matches against the Scots.
Johnson pinpointed that error as the key to the match, but remained steadfast in his support of Weir, who has been given the problem 10 jersey for the championship.
“The time (young players) get in the saddle the less likely that is to occur and the right decision will get made,” said the coach.
“That was a 14-point turnaround with that intercept,” he added, believing that Scotland would have scored to have gone at least 19-9 ahead. “That is game over there. We put them away there (with a try) and that is game over.”
However, Weir would continue to be backed, he continued, saying he believed overall Scotland had been the better team.
“It’s part of growing pains, and sometimes they hurt,” continued the coach. “Sure with the intercept he fell down but he stood up, showed character and made the kick that put us back in front.
“We’ve backed the lad, we haven’t put another 10 on the bench (as back-up). He’s got a basic skillset we like and can hold itself in international rugby and we’re prepared to see that out.
“It was wrong option, wrong execution but good resolve at the end. I’ll take that character every time.”
Johnson was more concerned about the penalty count, which was lop-sided against Scotland for the fourth game out of four.
“We are paid professionals and have to acknowledge where we let ourselves down,” he said.
“What disappointed me was the second last penalty, not so much the last. We had the ball in their half and control of the game with four minutes to go, we could have milked it out, but we didn’t do that.
“All our boys are big boys but I thought at the end of the day there was great character in this side. Once we fix a few things up we will have a pretty good team here.”
Johnson’s last game of his 14-month interim spell in charge will be in his old stomping ground of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff next week, and he vowed that the Scots will give it a go.
“We will go down there with the same intent,” he said. “We have the walking wounded in there with a couple of boys so we will give guys an opportunity but it won’t be anything else but good intent and to go down there and get a win.”
Prop Geoff Cross, who played the whole 80 minutes and came out on top, admitted that the Scots “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory again.”
“Desolate best describes the changing room,” he said. “We let them off the hook with our penalty count.
“That was a painful lesson but it can be useful if we learn, our behaviour has to change if we want to go forward and I am confident we will.”
Cross also declined to question referee Craig Pollock’s performance.
“All the refs can really do is decide on what they can see consistently and that can be subject to change,” he pointed out.
“All of that the players and referees strive for is consistency of refereeing performance. That’s something that I can’t control but if the refs’ interpretation does change then it’s for the players to understand those interpretations and execute the skills appropriately.”
Scotland will require changes for Cardiff with Johnnie Beattie and Sean Lamont are both out after being taken off in the first half on Saturday with ankle and knee injuries respectively.
The extent of the injuries are not clear before consultants take a look but Scotland medical chief Dr James Robson has already ruled them both out.
In addition Ryan Grant, who had his best game of the championship, is struggling with a hip/abdomen injury that will require an MRI scan today to determine the extent of the problem.