Harlequins Joe Marler believes England and Scotland will both be looking to make amends at Murrayfield this Saturday following their opening round Guinness Six Nations Rugby defeats, writes Ziad Chaudry.

 

The 29-year-old appeared along side fellow Quins Kyle Sinclair as hosts France ruled the roost in Le Crunch 24-17 last Sunday at Stade De France in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis.

 

The young resurgence and mighty vibrant new-look French outfit, who were backed by a pretty vocal partisan crowd, came out of the blocks like Usain Bolt in the 100m sprint and stunned the World Cup finalists 24-0 after 54 minutes. However a brace of brilliance from Johnny May and further points from Owen Farrell added respectability to the scoreline.

 

France highly-touted scrum half Antoine Dupont, 23, played a inspirational part in the hosts much deserved victory. Converted tries from Vincent Rattez and captain Charles Ollivon plus Romain Ntamack gave the home crowd plenty to sing about.

 

Marler, a former pupil at Richmond-Upon-Thames College, openly admitted the hosts were just too good on the day and praised them.

 

"I thought the young boys from France were magnificent," he said.

"They were confident, they got of at us early doors and to go 17-0 down at half time was a big ask to come back out in the second half.

 

"The second half was much more pleasing from our point of view. It was more decisive and more backing from each other. But it was too little too late and the French deserved their victory."

 

It was a pretty big ask to turnover a commanding deficit but to give Eddie Jones's troops credit they did perform much better in the second half which will give them plenty of positives going into Murrayfield in Edinburgh this Saturday. Scotland will also be looking for their first victory in their Six Nations campaign following their 19-12 defeat away at Ireland.

 

"It's going to be tough because we immediately let it out of our own hands," Marler added. "We are relying on someone else to lose as well on the way in the next four games. Six day turnaround Scotland up in their place. They'll probably be full of beans actually after their performance yesterday although they lost. So it will be a fiery exchange after last year's game."