Gregor Townsend: Scotland need 'big improvement' after France loss
Last updated on .From the section Scottish Rugby
Scotland need "big improvements" after being hammered by France in their opening warm-up match for the World Cup, says head coach Gregor Townsend.
Scotland conceded five tries in Nice as France overpowered them to cruise to a 32-3 victory.
The teams meet again at Murrayfield on Saturday, before Scotland play a double-header with Georgia prior to travelling to Japan.
"We need to see big improvements," the Scotland head coach told BBC Scotland.
"We've got 40 in our squad and the majority of them are going to Japan, so we'll be working with them to improve. Some might not get as many opportunities after tonight, but that might have been the case anyway.
"We all know we have to show a better picture of ourselves next week at Murrayfield," he added.
France dominated from kick-off as Fiji-born wing Alivereti Raka crossed within two minutes, with Maxime Medard and Gregory Alldritt adding further scores to put the hosts 20-3 in front by half-time.
Scotland struggled to cope with their physicality, including in the scrum, where France won numerous penalties.
Townsend was concerned with his side's fitness.
"We've worked hard and we know the players are in really good physical shape but they're obviously not match conditioned yet and we'll look at how we can accelerate that over the next week or two," he said.
"We allowed them into the game by not making enough dominant collisions, dominant tackles and when you give a French team space they can cause you damage, so that's very disappointing."
Scotland begin their World Cup campaign against Ireland on 22 September.
