Finn has no Calcutta Cup regrets
Russell has NO regrets over Calcutta Cup exchange with Townsend that saw Scotland overturn 31-7 half-time deficit
IT was the heated argument in the dressing room that dramatically turned the Calcutta Cup showdown on its head after a disastrous first half for Scotland at Twickenham.
And Finn Russell has revealed that he wouldn’t hesitate to take Gregor Townsend to task again if he feels things need changing.
With the visitors trailing 31-7 to the Auld Enemy in front of a braying home crowd in their Six Nations clash in March, the 26-year-old fly-half felt he had no choice but to challenge his head coach’s tactics.
Russell protested that Townsend (below) had the players kicking far too much, and said they needed to keep the ball more in the second half to have any chance of mounting a fightback.
It was a bold intervention by the Scotland No10 — but one that proved spot-on.
Kicking much less after the break, Townsend’s men mounted an unforgettable fightback — with Russell scoring the fourth of five second-half Scotland tries in a pulsating encounter that saw England salvage a share of the points with a last-minute conversion in a 38-38 draw.
With the World Cup now looming large, the Racing 92 star naturally hopes things go so smoothly for the Scots in Japan that he doesn’t have to weigh in quite so heavily with his opinions.
Having emerged as a more experienced figure from his time in France, however, he admits he would do so again if the situation calls for it.
‘With all players and coaches you need discussions like that,’ said Russell at Scotland’s World Cup training camp at St Andrews.
‘It has to be open and honest. Whether that is myself, or another player, you need to have these discussions and say what you think.
‘You might be wrong but as long as you feel comfortable saying it.
‘At half-time in that game, something was not working.
‘I was just saying what I thought we had to do.
‘Greig (Laidlaw) made a few points, Gregor had his points as well. I suppose rather than just have Gregor saying we have to do this and that, the more heads you have working together the better the outcome.’ Asked whether he feared changing tactics at half-time — partly based on his advice -— might have backfired, he replied with a smile: ‘It couldn’t have been much worse!’ There is no doubt that the confidence Russell has gained since his move from Glasgow Warriors to Racing in 2018 has given him the confidence to speak out when the going gets tough. ‘It was good — and it’s what I am like,’ he recalled of his daring intervention at Twickers. ‘I am always going to stay true to myself. If I don’t think something is working, I am happy to express it.
‘Maybe with the experience and confidence that has come over the last year, it is hard to say if I would have been able to say what I did without it.
‘I was a bit frustrated at how it was going and there are probably a few factors there as to why I said it and what made me express myself as I did.’
Russell believes his overall game has come on leaps and bounds since his move to the star-studded Paris-based side, which can only be good news for Scotland heading into a World Cup where they will face Ireland, hosts Japan, Russia and Samoa in Pool A
‘It was the right decision to go there,’ said Russell ‘Racing 92 are a great team. It was good to be chucked in the deep end, even although I had been playing professionally for six years.
‘To get thrown back to the start a little bit, to have to re-establish myself back in a team, was a good thing. I had to learn to control a team again. Racing 92 in France have a lot of big names and good players.
‘To have to go there and improve was good for me. It freshened up my game. Gave me the challenges I needed.
‘Learning the language is still hard, so if I don’t fully know what the coaches want from me or what the players want a lot of time I need to go with the flow.
‘If I get a pass out the back, I need to know it is coming and be ready for anything.
‘This year I have had to be ready for everything in attack and in training as well. The challenge is to be at the same level as the guys I am playing with. It has pushed me on.’
Russell was something of a Scotland rookie during the last World Cup in 2015, when Vern Cotter’s men were cruelly denied by a controversial last-minute penalty for Australia in a 35-34 quarter-final defeat at Twickenham
Now he has emerged as one of the leaders in the pack under Townsend.
‘The last World Cup came only a year after I’d been first capped for Scotland,’ said Russell.
‘I’ve had four more years playing since then, one of them in France. I have developed as a player, as a man. I’ve matured and I’ve got more experience.
‘I’ve still got all the aspects of the game that I had back then but there’s just been a lot more rugby since then. I’ve played a lot of games for my clubs and a few more for Scotland as well.
‘The position as a ten or a 12 means you’re at the heart of the attack. I’ll be trying to help my team out and take the lead on the attacking side whenever I can.’