Jamie Roberts knows Wales must do better if they are to beat France

10 April 2012

Jamie Roberts admits Wales cannot afford a repeat of their first-half struggle against Scotland if they are to have any chance of toppling RBS 6 Nations title favourites France.

The unbeaten Les Bleus are next up for Roberts and company in 11 days' time.

Wales' dramatic 31-24 victory over Scotland kept alive hopes of Six Nations silverware for a second time in three seasons.

But they only prevailed after an astounding finale that produced 17 unanswered points during injury-time, assisted by Scotland having two players down following yellow cards for Scott Lawson and Phil Godman.

Worryingly for Wales, they leaked two more tries, making it nine conceded in the last three Tests, and France will not require a second invitation to take advantage of such generosity.

"France look like they are going to be the team to beat," said Wales centre Roberts.

"It will be a hell of a game, but if we play like we did in the first half against Scotland there will be no coming back.

"We need to be settled in defence and dominate the collisions."

Roberts' midfield colleague James Hook expects Shaun Edwards to make a no-holds-barred case for the defence before Wales take on France.

Hook and scrum-half Gareth Cooper were responsible for Scotland's opening try, scored by flanker John Barclay when he smashed through their weak combined tackling.

Then full-back Lee Byrne looked ponderous and poorly-positioned as substitute Max Evans dived over to claim a second Scottish touchdown just 11 minutes later.

Hook admitted: "Our defence let us down in the first half. There were a couple of easy tries conceded.

"We were really disappointed with the first half. Scotland were strong, better than us in contact, and our defence was pretty poor.

"We are all disappointed with our defence. It is something we are going to be working on in the next two weeks, and France are a different kettle of fish again."

Wales defence specialist Edwards will already be plotting a strategy for France, who have won four of their five Six Nations games at the Millennium Stadium.

For now though, Wales will enjoy a win that has kick-started a Six Nations campaign which began in such disappointing fashion at Twickenham seven days earlier.

Hook added: "We knew after last week we would have to win our next two games against Scotland and France.

"We could see Scotland tiring in the last 25 minutes, and although we were 10 points behind we knew if we kept hold of the ball we could do what we did.

"We always tried to keep our composure, and the determination was outstanding. We kept at it and kept at it. Little margins decide things at this level.

"It certainly gives us confidence, but we know there is a lot to work on after our first-half performance, make no bones about it."

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