Six Nations 2018: Gregor Townsend rings the changes against France but takes the blame for Wales horror show

Gregor Townsend has responded to Scotland’s disastrous start to the Six Nations by making six changes to his side for this Sunday’s return to Murrayfield in the must-win encounter with France, but insists that the fault lies with him and his coaching team for their Cardiff horror show.

Scotland’s championship hopes suffered a shattering blow last weekend as Wales ran riot in a 34-7 victory over the Dark Blues, with Townsend’s side only getting on the scoresheet inside the final two minutes through Peter Horne’s try.

"The responsibility for last week lies with the coaches and myself," said Townsend on Thursdsy. "We put a team out to perform. Whether it is selection or how we prepared, the first thing we look at is how we could have done it better.

"We, as a coaching group, and especially the players, believe that what we showed at the weekend wasn't a true reflection of what we are capable of and what we have done throughout 2017.

"But I really believe in the group of players. We under-performed – it happens every now and again. You don't want it to happen, you think hard about why it happened and you go to a lot of measures to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"But this is an excellent group of players that have shown that over the last year.”

Horne is one of the six new faces in the starting XV alongside former captain Greig Laidlaw, who returns at scrum-half as Ali Price drops to the replacements’ bench, having thrown the pass that allowed Welsh opposite number Gareth Davies to intercept and score the first of four tries inside the Principality Stadium.

Laidlaw, who was replaced as captain permanently at the start of the year by John Barclay after nearly seven years at the helm, will win his 60th cap for his country and will attempt to get a re-jigged back line firing on all cylinders after failing to live up to their attacking reputation on the opening weekend.

Saracens wing Sean Maitland replaces the injured Byron McGuigan, while Huw Jones returns to the outside centre role, making room for Horne to come in and fill the No 12 shirt as Chris Harris drops to the replacements.

Newcastle Falcons tighthead prop Jon welsh is replaced by Simon Berghan while his Edinburgh teammate Grant Gilchrist is preferred to Ben Toolis in the second-row, and Ryan Wilson beats Cornell Du Preez to the No 8 shirt, with the latter dropped from the match-day squad completely.

With what he hopes will be a refreshed and rejuvenated squad, Townsend hopes that the partisan atmosphere inside Murrayfield will inspire his side to a performance closer to the ones seen last autumn against Australia and New Zealand rather than last week’s.

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"As a group we're delighted to be playing at home in front of another sell-out crowd at BT Murrayfield and are looking forward to putting in a performance that can energise our supporters,” he added.

"To do that we need to out-work the opposition and be more accurate in a number of aspects of our play.

"We've seen a response from the players in training this week and that needs to continue into and through the 80-plus minutes of the match because France will pose a massive and immensely-physical challenge."

S Hogg; T Seymour, H Jones, P Horne (all Glasgow), S Maitland (Saracens); F Russell (Glasgow), G Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne); G Reid (London Irish), S McInally, S Berghan; G Gilchrist (all Edinburgh), J Gray (Glasgow); J Barclay (Scarlets, capt), H Watson (Edinburgh), R Wilson (Glasgow).

Replacements: S Lawson (Newcastle), J Bhatti (Glasgow), J Welsh (Newcastle), B Toolis (Edinburgh), D Denton (Worcester), A Price (Glasgow), C Harris (Newcastle), B Kinghorn (Edinburgh).