Johnson happy with centres of attention

Three rounds in and Johnson has paired up with his Glasgow Warriors clubmate Huw Jones in the opening rounds against Ireland and England and try-scoring Gloucester-man Chris Harris for the recent win over Italy in Rome.

He said: “Chris [Harris] is a really good player and a really good person, who I’ve enjoyed playing with.

“It was unfortunate to see him [Huw Jones] not playing at the weekend but I thought Chris took his opportunity really well with a good try and was defensively really solid with a few turnovers.

“[The mood in camp is] good; I think it’s definitely the best environment that I’ve been in during my time with Scotland.

“We’re not far, we’re turning a page to plan some good rugby and get some good results, so we’ll prepare for France this week and next week and see how we go.”

Scotland face an unbeaten French outift at BT Murrayfield this Sunday in the sides’ penultimate match of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.

Wins over England, Italy and Wales has talk of a Grand Slam emerging among the ‘Auld Alliance’, an achievement which would stand as a dramatic turnaround from last season’s fourth-placed finish.

Scotland are the next hurdle on that journey, with the hosts proving a tough opponent for traveling Frenchmen in recent years, winning the last three meetings in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Johnson signalled out ‘electric players’ like young half-back pairing Antoine Dupont (scrum-half) and Romaine Ntamack (stand-off) for specific praise, adding: “They’re a good young side and have good coaching staff that bring out the best out of their attributes.

“They’re playing really good rugby at the moment, so they’re coming out all guns blazing.

“I’m not really surprised by it [how well they’re playing].

“It doesn’t take much to switch things around, they’re on a good spell of form and they’re full of confidence.”