Pals will be leaders of the house

GARY HEATLY

SCOTLAND skills coach Mike Blair believes flatmates Ali Price and Finn Russell can step up as leaders during the autumn Tests. Since Price became first-choice scrum-half with Glasgow Warriors and the national team, he and stand-off Russell have formed a superb understanding on the pitch. Former Scotland star Blair believes the fact they now share a house helps with their chemistry on the pitch. And he’s backing both to step up to the plate for the clashes with Samoa, New Zealand and Australia at Murrayfield. Blair said: “We talked about the leadership side of things nearly two years ago with Ali and the role a scrum-half has. He has been working on it this season and has done a great job. “In the last year or so the maturity Finn has started to show in his rugby has just been brilliant. With Ali and him now living in the same flat they have rubbed off really well on each other. “They are both similar personalities who like a laugh and a joke – but on the pitch they are deadly serious and push each other on.” will try to bully us. They’ve got some cracking players. But we’re focused on ourselves and how we can put pressure on them and take our chances.

“If we do that then we are in with a great shout of winning the game and the boys are flying in camp at the moment.

“Everyone in the squad had good results over the weekend with their clubs and we are all fit and fighting for starting spots, so that makes training really good and will no doubt cause the coaches a good few headaches.

“We need to get momentum from the Samoa game to take into the next two.”