Bernard Laporte's men took the field at Murrayfield expecting to comfortably see off the Scots, whom they had beaten on seven consecutive occasions prior to Sunday.

But Sean Lamont crossed for two tries - to take his international tally to five - and Chris Paterson kicked 10 points as Frank Hadden's side claimed a famous 20-16 win.

Forward pair Julien Bonnaire and Sebastien Bruno burrowed over in the same corner for France in the second half but it was too little too late for the pre-tournament favourites.

The loss of Yannick Jauzion with a fractured toe - an injury which will also keep him out of the Ireland game this weekend - was a major blow.

They boast a plethora of class centres but Jauzion is the jewel in the crown and his replacement Ludovic Valbon had a mixed game in a misfiring French backline.

Celebrated stand-off Frederic Michalak - perhaps hampered by a groin strain - was also badly out of sorts and only Florian Fritz of their illustrious three-quarters enhanced his reputation.

Pelous, who won his 103rd cap in Edinburgh having recently completed a nine-match ban for elbowing Wallaby hooker Brendan Cannon, admitted that France's fluency was a problem against Scotland.

And in recalling experienced forwards Serge Betsen, Olivier Magne and Raphael Ibanez for the match with Ireland, Laporte has recognised the need for extra ball-carrying prowess against the likes of British & irish Lions duo Paul O'Connell and Simon Easterby.

The Toulouse lock, who made his international debut against Romania in 1995, said: ''Getting the ball out wide and taking the ball forward are the things we need to work on.

''All we can do now is go forward to the next game and put right the things that were not right in this game.

''Scotland played very well against us, as they did last year, but we should have been able to cause them more problems.''

France now face a tough test against Ireland - who defeated Italy in Dublin to kick their RBS 6 Nations campaign off with a win - in Paris this Saturday.

Pelous recognises that France will have to improve if they are not to find themselves on the wrong end of another defeat against Brian O'Driscoll's men.

The 32-year-old said: ''The best thing about the tournament is that you don't always know who is going to win. Scotland kept coming back at us and got their win.

''We put out the best team out we could but Scotland's defence was excellent and we were not able to recover from their early good work.

''The tournament is the way it is with four more games to play and there are other opportunities to show what we can do.

''We will prepare for those carefully and this week we will assess the injuries and put the best 22 we can put out for the next game.''