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.

Six Nations 2022: Defiant Scots ignore their detractors ahead of France challenge

Stuart Hogg is confident about Scotland's challenge against France.
Stuart Hogg is confident about Scotland's challenge against France.

Backs against the wall, Scotland are looking to come out fighting against France according to captain Stuart Hogg – and they don’t care what others say about them.

Hogg admitted a significant degree of angst after the defeat in Wales, but said the team plan to turn that frustration on the French.

And he was scathing to the suggestion that the Scots have flattered themselves to deceive everyone else, or that the team – and particularly stand-off Finn Russell – don’t care enough.

‘It was a dark couple of days’

“Last week was horrible,” he said. “I went back home and it was a dark couple of days trying to get over the result.

“I watched it back and my mood swings were unbelievable. I was up and down. I didn’t enjoy viewing it and that is something that has been very, very frustrating this last week.”

The idea that the Scots talk themselves up is nonsense, he said, and there is “a massive difference between confidence and arrogance”.

“Certainly, from a player’s points of view, I think we give out the impression that we are confident in our ability and confident in our structures, but we’re far from arrogant.

“We are as far away from that as you possibly can get. We have not been in a position to win trophies so we are never going to be arrogant.”

As for Russell, Hogg loves when he sees his stand-off smiling – even after an error – because he knows it means Russell is still calm.

“It is the complete opposite (of not caring),” he said. “I love that because I know that when he is like that he still remains calm. He is frustratingly good at times and he just seems to park mistakes.

“One of the best things about Finn is that he genuinely doesn’t care what people think, other than the people he cares about. Everybody reacts to mistakes in completely different ways and that’s what we want. We want people to be individuals.

“Everybody can say what they want about Finn and what they want about myself or anybody else. Mistakes happen. We genuinely care. It is a bit frustrating when people look in and think the opposite.

“It was only because the result didn’t go our way last time that we probably got more than normal.”

Russell’s French lessons will be crucial

Russell’s input this week in particular has been crucial, added the skipper.

“Finn has been absolutely outstanding, as he is most weeks, but even more this week,” he said.

“He has had a huge influence on the way we are trying to play and also the analysis he has brought from the top 14 and the players that he plays with or against.

“He is really excited about the opportunities that we’ve got in attack. He is going to be the driver of the way we want to play. His analysis has been second to none and I’ve been really impressed by what he has done this week.”

Their analysis has them believing there will be more opportunities to play with ball in hand this week, says Hogg.

“We want to have the complete package – the all-round game both sides of the ball,” he said. “But no two matches are the same, so sometimes you rely heavily on your attack and sometimes you rely on your defence.

“Against Wales we had a big front-line focus in terms of defence, and we had to find ways to get into the game and that was through our kicking game. Unfortunately, and I put myself into this bracket, our kicking game wasn’t good enough.

“I have no doubt that against France, if we carry hard and move them around the field, then we will create space and really get going.”