Vern Cotter: Scotland performance "encouraging" in France defeat

Vern Cotter has said that Scotland's performance against France was "encouraging", despite his side coming away with a defeat in their opening Six Nations tie.

Camille Lopez made five penalties for the home side to them a 15-8 win at Stade de France on Saturday.

The Scotland coach told BBC Sport: "It was one of those days where they hit the post and the ball goes in and we hit the post and the ball goes out. We were pretty close to taking something as we created a lot of opportunities.

"We could have come away with a draw, the boys kept believing and that was really encouraging. They played with big hearts and we stayed in the contest for the whole game.

"I thought we defended well, our line-out and scrum stood up to what was a very physical game but our guys rolled their sleeves up and got stuck into it."

Scotland host Wales next Sunday.