RUSSELL RECEIVES THREE-MATCH BAN

Barnes for leading with his arm into the neck of France full-back Brice Dulin with ten minutes to go in last Friday’s thrilling Six Nations match in Paris, which saw the Scots emerge victorious due to a lastminute Duhan van der Merwe try.

Russell made a point of going across to Dulin, who plays for La Rochelle, after he was ordered off to apologise for his actions, which was given as one of the reasons that his original sentence of six weeks was cut in half.

The former Glasgow Warriors star also accepted that he had committed an act of foul play and that it had warranted a red card. The Disciplinary Committee found the offence to warrant a mid-range entry point of six weeks, which was then reduced to three but still ruled him out of the Heineken Champions Cup clash with old rivals Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Russell’s team-mate Ryan Wilson admits he was just delighted to take centre stage in the celebrations after his 15-minute cameo in Paris.

Wilson was brought in from the wilderness at late notice by Gregor Townsend after Matt Fagerson injured his ankle in training. The Glasgow player, whose last Scotland appearance had been in the World Cup defeat to Japan in 2019, went on to play his part in Van der Merwe’s dramatic match-winning try after coming on as a replacement.

‘I’ll be honest, I probably did think that was me done with international rugby and was trying to come to terms with it,’ said Wilson. ‘Then Glasgow trained against Scotland on the Wednesday before they flew out and Matt injured his ankle.

‘Right at the end of the session, Gregor came over and said: “Listen, we might need you to go to France”.’

Three times Wilson was involved in that incredible final passage of play when Scotland held onto the ball for four minutes and went through 19 attacking phases before Van der Merwe scored in the corner.

‘It was up there as one of the best tries I’ve been involved in,’ he said. ‘That game and finish summed up the whole of the Six Nations. There were red cards, yellow cards, twists and turns. It was just crazy.’

Wilson was reluctant to get too involved in the pictures of the Auld Alliance trophy presentation before skipper Stuart Hogg urged him to come down to the front.

He added: ‘I was trying to stand at the back — I didn’t want to do a John Terry — but Hoggy was: “Come on, Wils, down you get”, so I thought I might as well jump in there. I will get some stick for that!’