FRANCE COACH Marc Lievremont has accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of denying his side an even bigger victory than their eventual Six Nations championship 18-9 win over Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

“I have to pay tribute to the courage of the Scots but the referee’s leniency with them and his extreme severity with our team was one of the reasons why the score was not higher,” said Lievremont.

“I feel sad because it’s a bit recurring. We can’t forget that last year in Dublin, there were 13 penalties against us and two against Ireland,” he added referring to France’s 30-21 loss at Croke Park in a game also directed by Owens.

“We are going to polish up our report to Paddy O’Brien (head of the IRB’s referee commission). Refereeing is a factor of the game we can’t control but we’ll still try to solve the problem.”

The France coach said he was happy with the performance of his team against Scotland. “We are satisfied, and I’ll even say very satisfied, because of the win, of course which was essential but also because of our collective control of the game and of the commitment of all the players,” he said.

“You can, of course, discuss the performance of the Scottish team and therefore the performance of our team but I have the feeling that a much improved Scotland has been defeated by a much improved French team.”

Wales are set today to keep faith with the secondrow Alun Wyn Jones when they name their team to face Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday. Jones was accused by his coach, Warren Gatland, of costing his side victory at Twickenham last weekend after he was sent to the sin-bin for a trip and England scored 17 unanswered points in his absence.

Gatland said after the 30-17 defeat he would consider dropping Jones, who led Wales against Italy in last year’s Six Nations, but he has since calmed down and is likely to content himself with a rebuke and a warning about future behaviour.

“We’ve all made mistakes and Alun Wyn did on the weekend,” said the Wales kicking coach, Neil Jenkins. “We’ve had other players in the past who have been sin-binned and we’ve come through it unscathed. That was not the case on Saturday, but that is how it goes. Things get said, but I do not think he will be dropped.

“We have learned from it and moved on. Alun is a superb player and we have to make sure that we do not lose our discipline against Scotland.”