Superior French delighted

France's No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy was delighted with his side's 18-9 win over Scotland at Murrayfield.

The French were the superior team throughout but were made to work for their victory by a dogged Scottish outfit.

He told BBC1: "I'm very happy to win today against a Scotland team who have a big heart.

"It's very hard to play against them. They play from the beginning to the end."

Scotland coach Andy Robinson admitted some poor defending had cost his team.

Mathieu Bastereaud crossed twice for the French and Robinson added: "We conceded two soft scores and if we do that we're not going to beat anybody.

"It was hard against a good French scrum, the French were very canny in what they did."

But Robinson saw some reasons for optimism ahead of next week's trip to Cardiff to play Wales.

"There are a number of positives we've got to take out of that," he said.

"I was pleased with a number of performances, particularly Sean Lamont.

"The second half, the players performed better in defence and we had a number of attacking opportunities."

France winger Vincent Clerc praised Bastareaud's performance on his return to the side after being hit with a three-month ban following his summer scandal.

Bastareaud had claimed he was attacked on a night out in order to cover up the fact he hurt himself in a drunken fall.

"It was a good performance after some problems in July. He did a great match with two tries and some great defence," said Clerc.