The Scotland Club International team put up a brave fight in Orleans, central France, on Friday night but ultimately fell to defeat in the first game of their 2011 campaign. Despite providing a gripping performance, the visitors were undone by the physicality of the French forwards.
Ian Rankin, the Scotland Club international coach, commended both sides for their outstanding play, and felt the final score didn’t reflect the courage and effort the Scots put in.
He said: “Both sides put in an outstanding performance and there was very little between them.
“Unfortunately the French maintained the upper hand as they made their maul extremely difficult to cope with.
“All in all it was a fantastic game and an outstanding advert for club rugby.” 
Scotland crossed the whitewash on four occasions, but the referee failed to validate two of these potential scores.
Their first successful try came from lock forward Damien Kelly who intercepted a pass on the halfway line and proceeded to elude the French defence with a superb run to the line.
Winger Dougie Fife later added a further five points to the Scots’ tally. Stand-off Scott Wight was only successful with one of the conversion, but added an additional two penalties during the proceedings.
Scotland Club International: Tom Brown (Currie); Fraser Thomson (Melrose), Harry Duthie (Dundee), Dean Kelbrick (Glasgow Hawks), Dougie Fife (Currie); Scott Wight (Melrose), Richard Sneddon (Currie); Alan Dymock (Heriot’s), Eric Milligan (Glasgow Hawks), Alan Brown (Dundee), Rory McKay (Hawks), Damien Kelly (Ayr), John Dalziel CAPTAIN (Melrose), Rob Colhoun (Ayr), Ross Weston (Currie)
Substitutes: Finlay Gilles (Currie), Gordon Reid (Ayr), Nick Campbell (Glasgow Hawks), Andy Dunlop (Ayr), Andy Dymock (Dundee), Mathew Scott (Currie), Ross Curle (Ayr)

This article was posted on 5-Feb-2011, 07:52 by Hugh Barrow.