Paris: France need to make their dominance count if they are to threaten Six Nations holders Ireland next weekend, coach Philippe Saint-Andre said after his team struggled to beat Scotland on Saturday.

The hosts enjoyed much of the possession in their tournament opener and played most of the second period in Scotland’s half but failed to score a single try in a 15-8 win at the Stade de France.

“We need to be more patient when we are close to the lines,” Saint-Andre told a news conference.

“We need to play one or two extra phases if we want to score.” Winger Yoann Huget came close in the second half after a dazzling run but knocked the ball on as he was about to score a try.

Instead, France relied on the boot of Camille Lopez as the flyhalf slotted home five of six penalties.

“We need to improve on our periods of dominance, we need to make them count,” said Saint-Andre.

The former France international, however, was satisfied his team managed to win the match despite conceding a try.

“We could have done better but two years ago it is a game we would not have won,” added the coach.

Asked whether that level of performance would be high enough to beat Ireland in Dublin next Saturday, captain Thierry Dusautoir said: “We will come up with the solutions for next weekend.” According to Scotland boss Vern Cotter, who has huge French rugby expertise having coached Clermont for eight years, France must rely on their power.

“They played a direct, physical game,” he said.

“It’s a very powerful team, especially with those two centres (Mathieu Bastareaud and Wesley Fofana).

“Luckily we defended well.” Cotter, who has transformed Scotland from a naive to a solid team since he took charge last June, said they could have “come away with a draw”.

“We were pretty close, we had a lot of opportunities.” Scotland host Wales, deflated by a home loss to England, at Murrayfield next Sunday when Cotter said it will be time to “put points on the table”.

Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw admitted his side was frustrated at having failed to come away with a positive result from the Stade de France on Saturday.

“We’re extremely frustrated, we felt we played a lot of really, really good rugby but we just let them off the hook at times,” said the scrum-half, who kicked one penalty during the game.

“We were probably on the wrong side of the penalty count as well,” he added, referring to Scotland’s concession of 12 penalties to France’s eight.