As formidable as France are, they have never quite held the same fear factor for Scotland as the likes of Ireland in recent times. During Townsend’s reign they have faced France 13 times across Six Nations, Autumn Nations Cup and World Cup warm-up matches and have won five of them.
Scotland fans will be quick to point out it should have been six, given the controversial intervention from the television match official to rule out what would have been a match-winning try from Sam Skinner in the final play of the Six Nations meeting at Murrayfield two years ago.
The average score across those 13 games is roughly 26-20 (25.76 to 19.58 to be precise) in France’s favour, an indicator that when these teams play it is very rarely a blowout.
France do damage in devastating bursts but they do allow opponents opportunities, something Scotland have been able to take advantage of to produce some very entertaining Test matches.
“It’s two teams that love to play rugby. They often are really fatiguing games because you’ve got two teams that are trying to have a crack,” said Steyn, who after years of playing understudy to Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham for the national team, has played himself to the front of the queue for a wing spot.
“Both teams will make errors and we obviously know how lethal they are from transition so you’ve got to try and not make those errors, but at the same time, they’ve got a big juggernaut up front that needs to move and we relish the chance to have a go against them and try and make them defend. You look forward to these games, they’re always so much fun.
“This is a game where you just know it’s going to be fun from one to 80. You don’t know what’s going to happen but it’s going to flow.
“France have had a cracking tournament so far and when you look at them, they’ve got threats all across the park.
“It’s the same as any other week from that point of view. You’ve got to give them the respect they deserve – but no more than that.”