Scotland came within a whisker of beating the reigning champions and it was not until the final minutes before the home side edged ahead.
Although Scotland displayed undoubted tenacity in holding the French for most of the 80 minutes, questions have been asked about their ability to break out into a more expansive game.
But Andy, who returned to the international arena after a two-year absence, denied Matt Williams' side had gone into the game with a lack of attacking ambitions.
He said: "A good defensive performance can win the game on its own. If you are getting into the opposition's faces and hustling them so much that they make mistakes then obviously you will get more ball yourself.
"So we have got to take a lot of confidence in that the only French try came a couple of minutes from time and it was off a charge down.
"And I thought defensively it went well. They tried to go wide early on but I think we hassled them into making mistakes.
"Of course I would like to see more of the ball myself as I am sure Hugo Southwell would, especially as we have got two very powerful players, Sean Lamont and Simon Danielli, on the wings. It would be great if we could get them involved as well.
"But the French have a very defensive line and if you get caught running across field with the ball you are just going to get turned over.
"As the game went on it was getting so close and so tight and I suppose there was a little bit of fear of making a mistake and getting turned over.
"So you have got to stick to trying to win the game first before making it look too pretty."