Six Nations: Townsend injury adds to Scottish woes

Gregor Townsend could be struggling to play any further part in this season's Six Nations Championship.

The Scotland fly-half, desperate to impress ahead of the British Lions tour to Australia during the summer, limped out of his country's 16-6 defeat to France in Paris after just three minutes.

Coach Ian McGeechan said Townsend had suffered either medial ligament or cartilage damage and would be out "for a few weeks at least".

McGeechan added: "It is similar to the injury he suffered before the last World Cup.

"We are hoping it is not that serious but obviously it is serious enough for us to be looking at him being out for a few weeks at least. But he will need a scan before we can make any firm announcement."

Townsend is now almost certain to miss the clash with Wales at Murrayfield in two weeks' time, with the Calcutta Cup game at Twickenham a fortnight later also likely to be too soon for the Castres star.

Townsend was not the only Scotland player to suffer an injury, lock Richard Metcalfe also forced off the field with a dislocated finger which could not be repositioned without hospital treatment.

The disruption did little to help Scottish chances and neither did the yellow card handed out to flanker Martin Leslie for a high tackle on Philippe Bernat-Salles a minute before the break.

Ninety seconds after the interval, while Leslie was still off the field, Bernat-Salles did manage to score, rounding Kenny Logan before stepping inside two Scottish tacklers for the only try of the game.

It was maximum punishment for an offence McGeechan believed was worthy of no more than a warning.

"It was a harsh decision," insisted the Scotland coach.

"He caught Bernat-Salles on the inside shoulder and I thought a penalty and maybe a warning would have been fair enough.

"Martin was unlucky to be shown the yellow card. It made us work very hard either side of the interval and against a side like the French that is particularly difficult."

Christophe Lamaison added the conversion and also knocked over three penalties, with Logan's two in reply for Scotland not enough to force a third win in four French trips for the visitors who confounded pre-match predictions of a landslide win for the home side.

"There is a great deal of disappointment in the dressing room," said McGeechan.

"We created opportunities for ourselves and if we had put one or two of them away the game would have been very different.

"I was very impressed by my team's attitude and I thought we were very positive.

"The first play when Gregor received his injury was so good. To have someone like him on the field only makes it more likely you will put points on the board and that is what we failed to do."