Les Bleus, the defending champions, produced a poor performance on Saturday at the Stade de France where they needed 50 minutes to score their first points against Scotland, considered to be one of the weakest teams in the tournament.

France eventually claimed victory after Damien Trailles late try gave them a 16-9 triumph.

Going into the match, the French were eager to bounce back from losses to Argentina and New Zealand in their November Test matches, but the hosts were left with more questions than answers after their lacklustre show.

A puzzled Laporte said after the match that he was shocked by his side's scared attitude against Scotland.

However, he believes that it may work in their favour at Twickenham when they face an England side hoping to bounce back from an 11-9 defeat to Wales in Cardiff.

We will go to Twickenham with a little fear and it will give us a boost, said Laporte. We are never good enough when we are favourites.

The problem against Scotland is that we did not keep the ball enough but at least we managed to defend okay which is good ahead of the England match.