First quarter crucial, insist Evans brothers

IT IS common enough for coaches to emphasise the importance of the opening match in such a short tournament as the RBS Six Nations Championship, but Andy Robinson and his Scotland squad have a more specific target.

For them, the first 20 minutes of Sunday's match against France at Murrayfield are the key.

Get that first quarter right, they appear to believe, and they will have taken a significant step to getting the better of the French. Win the game, and they will have some much-prized momentum on their side.

Of course, aiming to get off to a good start is not exactly a tactical innovation.

No team plans for the sort of sluggish, lackadaisical beginning which has bedeviled Scotland at times over the past few years.

But Robinson is doing more than merely issuing a demand to hit the ground running.

Knowing how confident the French can become once they have settled into their rhythm and been allowed to throw the ball about a bit, he has drummed into his players the need to put the visitors on the back foot.

"We've got to get the first 20 minutes right, because if we let France settle they're a quality side," he said yesterday after announcing his team.

For a coach to give even that much away about a game plan might often be regarded as a bluff, but Robinson is not concerned with keeping the French guessing. If he were, he would not have announced his starting line-up five days before the game.

Nor would he have spent so much time talking to the players about the first quarter.

If Glasgow brothers, Max and Thom Evans, are any guide, they have all genuinely bought into the game plan.

"Go out and attack the French right from the outset," Thom, the right-winger, said.

"We need to get off to a good start – the match can be won and lost in that first 20. If we come out stronger than them, we can put ourselves in a good position to win the game."

Max, who played alongside his brother at international level for the first time in last year's 22-13 defeat by France, had the same message.

"Try not to let the French settle. Once they get settled and the French back line get confident they start to try and work their magic.

"Run in straight lines, get them worried almost, and then we can start to attack them in the right channels.

"The main emphasis is the first 20 – not let them settle at all and really worry them.

"There were times in the game against France last season when we had them on the outside but weren't clinical enough to get the try. That's what we're looking to do this season."

Max, at 26 older than Thom by two years, missed out on the three Autumn Tests because of a knee injury, but believed time was on his side as he attempted to get back into Robinson's plans for the Six Nations.

"I was pretty confident just because I know how I feel within the Glasgow set-up, so I knew once I got back playing for Glasgow it wouldn't be long before I'd knock on the door for Scotland."

That confidence is evident in the brothers' adventurous style of play.

If anyone in the Scotland team is going to beat the French at their own game – not only in the first quarter, but for the duration of the match – it will be them.

SIX NATIONS TEAM GUIDES:

Scotland

England

France

Ireland

Italy

Wales