Kellock (right) is keen to have an awareness of Gregor Townsend's plans

Alastair Kellock insists his main focus has to be on his own performance and not wearing the captain's armband if Scotland are to beat France in Paris.

The Scots open their Six Nations campaign at the Stade de France, with Kellock chosen to skipper the visitors.

"I need to be playing well if I'm going to stay in the team," Kellock said.

"The captaincy side of it, there isn't all that many crucial decisions that you'll have to make. Four or five of us will be making the decisions."

Kellock has previously captained Scotland and has worn the armband throughout his career at club and professional level.

"It's never been something that I've sought, it's never been something that I've gone out after," he told BBC Scotland. "I do enjoy it though and I think it adds to my game.

"I don't think there's a difference in what you've got to do, I need to play well, I need to be concentrating on my own game. Captaincy is about other people stepping up as well, not just about one guy having all the decisions to make and we're really good for that, we've got a great squad of leaders.

We need to be putting them under pressure at scrum time so that they don't have a free-for-all Alastair Kellock

"On top of that, guys like Rory Lawson, Nathan Hines and Dan Parks have an unbelievable amount of experience and they'll help out, they'll have their own jobs and they'll be looking after their own areas and I'll be focused on mine.

"I speak to [head coach] Andy [Robinson] regularly. I'm really keen to know what's going on, not just with my area, not just with the line-outs, but I'll speak to [coach] Gregor Townsend about the attack.

"I like to know a wide range of the backs' moves so that Dan and I can have an intelligent conversation about what we should be doing in certain areas and it's not just all coming from him or vice versa.

"There'll be a link between myself, Rory and Dan and if I feel everything's going well it'll be very much Dan and Rory's responsibility to decide what they want to do. If there's a stage in the game that I feel as if we need to be doing something as a pattern then I'll pass that message on and Dan knows exactly what he wants to do within those realms."

Kellock has not yet decided what his approach will be in the dressing room immediately before kick-off.

"I'll very much wait and see what happens, wait to see the feeling is in the camp. If there's a gee up needed then yes, I'll do that, if it's a case of having a quiet word with a couple of guys and saying, 'just calm it down', I'll do that.

"I'll also speak to individuals about putting energy into the environment, putting energy into the warm-up so that we're not just trying to switch on two minutes before the kick-off.

"It's about speaking to bench, they have to know they've got a huge responsibility in the warm-up to be vocal, to be geeing guys up and not just focussed on the fact that they're maybe not starting the game."

Scotland have not won on French soil since 1999 and Kellock believes choices made at the set piece will be crucial to his side's fate.

"That'll be a huge factor," he added. "If you look at the team that they've picked, they've got a very, very strong set piece. [Imanol] Harinordoquy is exceptionally good in the line-out.

"They've got a strong scrummaging pack so we've got to be spot-on if we're going to get the platform that our backs need and vice versa, we need to stop them playing, we need to stop them at source, we need to get up in the air and try and disrupt their ball.

"We need to be putting them under pressure at scrum time so that they don't have a free-for-all.

"I feel if we play at the best of our ability we can win but, in saying that, the French will be thinking exactly the same and will be looking to play at the best of their ability so it should be a good Test match."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version