IT’S A NUCLEAR CLASH OF EGOS
Scottish rugby’s cold war rumbles on after feuding pair refuse to find common ground
THAT’LL be the end of that, then. Farewell, Finn Russell. You will be missed. Just not by everyone in the coaches’ box at BT Murrayfield, clearly.
Short of some kind of miraculous intervention, Russell’s international exile will now continue.
Indefinitely. Until such time as he agrees to toe the same line as everyone else. At least while Gregor Townsend is head coach.
That was the clear message delivered straight from the pen of Townsend yesterday.
And, while the initial response might be to admire the logic of his articulately-argued position, one question keeps coming back.
How, exactly, does Townsend hitting back at Russell in such uncompromising terms advance the cause of Scotland’s national men’s rugby team?
Having banished the first-choice No10, a world-class talent from a nation that produces those about as frequently as Donald Trump expresses a coherent thought, Townsend has now dug himself into an ever more entrenched position.
Ignoring the very real concerns raised by Russell about tactical inflexibility, focusing purely on one off-colour incident, he has turned this into a clash of egos.
An affair handled badly from the outset, in other words, has been fumbled again. Leaving the poor beleaguered fans to wonder whether there are any grown-ups employed at Murrayfield.
Because there’s a whole load of stupid to go around on both sides of this row, not least in Russell’s decision to go public with an all-out assault on everything Townsend has built since succeeding Vern Cotter.
Townsend hitting back in such uncompromising terms, doing an absolute number on the player he first signed to Glasgow’s academy way back when, leaves almost no way out of this mess.
As fallouts go, this is nuclear grade material. Only with the potential to do greater damage.
Townsend certainly hit the mark in calculated fashion yesterday, insisting that he needed to run a tighter ship following a truly horrific World Cup — and even hinting that standards of behaviour in Japan hadn’t been quite up to scratch.
Killing Russell with kindness as he detailed how much he has enjoyed working with the playmaker, an approach intended to undermine the claim that ‘there is no relationship’ between the pair, the former Warriors coach laid out some non-negotiable facts of life as a Scotland player.
That hard line may actually add credence to one of Russell’s key complaints, the alleged lack of freedom for mavericks to contribute ideas or express themselves; it’s notable that Townsend did not address those issues yesterday.
Yet, the boss clearly felt the need to assert his authority. And to tell Russell that even the most gifted of individuals can’t be given special treatment.
‘We strive to create an environment for players to be at their absolute best when playing for Scotland,’ said Townsend.
‘To do that, players must be aligned to the high standards of being involved in team sport at an elite level.
‘These standards are set out through feedback from players and staff — and are driven by the player leadership group or the head coach at varying times during a campaign.
‘We have players who come from around a dozen different clubs and it’s really important they commit to an agreed standard of behaviour, which builds trust and is at the bedrock of a high-performance environment.
‘These standards don’t change for one player, even if that’s not what they experience in their club setting.
‘A really pleasing aspect of the last three weeks has been seeing the group commit to this highperformance standard, bond as a group of young men and show consistency and quality on the training field. They’ve been a pleasure to work with.
‘Following the World Cup, we reviewed a number of aspects of our environment and how that could lead to improved performances from the national team.
‘This process involved taking lots of feedback from players, coaches, management and external input, on what we need to do better.
‘Changes start from what we do as a coaching group and I learned a lot from the experience in Japan to how I can coach the team better.
‘How we run our week’s training to unlock the full potential in the squad is what drives us as coaches.
‘We believe we are in a much better place following the tournament and review.
‘We clearly didn’t perform on the field as well as we had planned and, off the field, felt certain standards of behaviour had slipped at times.’ Among the recommended changes were restrictions on alcohol consumption by players in camp.
Russell’s arrival on the Sunday night at the start of the Six Nations, having played for his club side Racing 92 earlier that day, provided the flashpoint for the madness we are all witnessing.
The player says the decision to order another beer wasn’t the point. It was about trust.
Townsend, blind-sided by his former protégé’s interview in a Sunday newspaper and obviously angered by what he read, clearly sees it differently.
The head coach said: ‘Finn left camp on the Sunday night because of a disagreement over alcohol with fellow players and chose to miss the following day’s (Monday) training and meetings.
‘I arranged to meet with him that evening. It was a really positive meeting where we talked openly about life, rugby and what it means to play for Scotland.
‘I left that meeting, after almost three hours, really optimistic that Finn would play a major part in our environment and be a committed team member. Unfortunately, things have not unfolded as well as we would have hoped.’
THAT’S something of an understatement. Russell went home to his parents, was told that he would not be needed for the opening game against Ireland — and went back to France to play for Racing.
In the interim, Scotland have lost to both the Irish in Dublin and England at home. Both performances have lacked a little magic in the game-breaking department.
Clearly, the more laissez-faire environment of the French capital, where Russell insists players have a major input on tactics and training, is more suited to his temperament.
His revelations that he had ‘clashed quite a lot’, including during half-time of last year’s Calcutta Cup comeback at Twickenham, clearly stung.
‘I’ve loved working with Finn over the past seven years,’ said Townsend. ‘In that time, I’ve coached him at Glasgow Warriors and with Scotland. He was one of my first signings in the academy at Glasgow.
‘I had watched him train and play the previous season and thought there was a player of real potential.
‘That season, training in our academy and playing for Ayr, we felt he had earned the opportunity to be part of the exclusive Macphail scholarship programme in New Zealand. That experience proved