Russell confident Scots can rattle Boks with help of whole squad
IT was only three months ago, but Finn Russell’s contribution to the third British and Irish Lions Test versus South Africa last summer has already gone down in rugby folklore.
A Test series which had been dominated up until that point by suffocating defence, onedimensional forward play and low-risk kicking strategies, suddenly burst to life after the Scottish playmaker took the field in the 11th minute of that final match.
He could not quite inspire a famous victory for the tourists but gave us all a reason to fall in love again with the Lions concept. And, significantly in the context of this week, he demonstrated that his devil-may-care approach to the game can rattle the Springboks if executed accurately.
As Scotland look to claim a second major southern hemisphere scalp inside the space of six days against South Africa on Saturday afternoon, Russell will be pulling the strings from the stand-off slot, and he plans to carry on from where he left off in Johannesburg at the start of August.
“Our plan that week was to play more expansive rugby and that suited the way I like to play,” he recalls. “It might have changed when I came on because of the understanding I have of playing expansively compared to other boys, but it wasn’t just me, it was the whole team alongside each other.
“We found that if you play with confidence and high-skill execution then you can put them [South Africa] under a lot of pressure. There was a couple of key moments in that game where if we had taken our chances it could have been a different result.
“Other teams have also found out since then in the Rugby Championship that there are ways to break them down. We know that Australia beat them a couple of times, and the All Blacks as well, so they’ve had a few losses recently.
“If Australia can beat South Africa, and we can beat Australia, then there is no reason why we can’t beat South Africa. So, I’ll be having a look back at their last few games this week to see how we can play against them.”
Russell reiterates that while he will inevitably play a crucial role in setting the tone, success against the Springboks will hinge on the whole squad being on the same wavelength.
“I am happy to have a go from my own 22 – have a crack at it – and all the boys are in that mindset,” he says. “We’re going out to play expansive, quick rugby at the weekend. If it is on, we are going to go for it.
“But it is not just one man that is going to beat the Springboks; it is going to be a full squad effort. It’s not just the 23 at the weekend, it’s the boys all week doing what they can to prepare the team as best they can.
“What we’ll look at this week is ways to turn their strengths into weaknesses, to see how we are going to pick them apart. For example, against a blitz defence a lot of players stand deep, but I think we’ll stand as flat as we can and try to take them on.
“With Scotland, we like to play what’s in front of us and try to off-load to exploit the space we’ve identified. This week we’ll be looking at where that space is potentially going to be and how we can get the ball there.
“After watching them in the Rugby Championship, we’ve picked up a few things on how they attack and have a few ideas about how we need to defend against them.”
Last Sunday’s victory over Australia has sent expectation
levels through the roof, not because the team played exceptionally well but because they found a way to win despite things not really going according to plan.
On the back of away victories against England and France this calendar year, there is a sense that this Scotland team have reached a stage of maturity where they can adapt mid-match to get a result.
So, while Russell’s clever off-loading game will almost certainly have a bearing on how the game pans out, he is more than happy to mix it up.
“I chatted to a few of the South African boys who were over in Paris at one of the Racing games after they had lost to Australia,” he says. “They were saying that they expected Australia to run everything, but they actually kicked everything instead, which was a different approach from them. It’s just a small thing but I think they were on to something so I might just kick a lot to try to throw them off a little bit.
“Or maybe halfway through the game we’ll decide to change how we’re going to play. That’s all the stuff we’re going to work on in the next four days leading up to the game.”