England, you best beware

Finn Russell says Scots head south in confident mood, writes Stuart Bathgate

AFTER that bizarre missed conversion from in front of the posts against France, Finn Russell was back at his confident best yesterday, deservedly being named man of the match in Scotland’s 29-13 victory over Wales at Murrayfield.

Not only did he score 19 points with his boot, the stand-off also sparked attack after attack with his inventive and unpredictable forward play. Those skills, combined with the finishing ability of try-scorers Tim Visser and Tommy Seymour as well as fullback Stuart Hogg, should prove a real threat to England when the Six Nations Championship resumes in a fortnight – and although Scotland have not won at Twickenham since 1983, Russell for one will not be intimidated by that statistic.

“I wasn’t even born,” the Glasgow playmaker said. “I don’t remember it.

“We went to France and 1999 was the last time we won there. These things come up, but we ran them [England] close a couple of years ago and last year. They’re playing well and have a lot of confidence and momentum, so it will be a tough game, but if we get our prep right we’ll see what happens.”

England won the Grand Slam last year, have beaten France and Wales already this year, and are expected to sweep Italy aside today. But Russell will apply himself assiduously to the task of finding chinks in their armour. “I’ll look to see if they have any weaknesses or strengths,” he added. “And we’ll do our analysis and hopefully play like we did in the second half.”

With John Barclay captaining the team from the back row as a replacement for the injured Greig Laidlaw, there was a fear that Russell’s game would not function so well without the scrum-half’s guidance. Yet, although he said Laidlaw had been missed, he also insisted that the new arrangement worked almost seamlessly.

“It was different with Greig not being here. From the attacking side and from the back we knew what we had to do, but Greig can control the game a lot better than me or probably anybody.

“Having Ali [Price] there and Jonny [Gray] calling the line-outs, we’re all at Glasgow so we weren’t fazed by it. Barcs was a great captain, and every individual stepped his game up.

“I had to do a little bit more as Greig wasn’t there, and sometimes in attack I was having to talk a bit more. It was disappointing not having Greig here, but it gives me different challenges and that’s good to have.

“We were four points down at half time and hadn’t really fired a shot or got into our game plan. It was a bit frustrating, and Ali and I will look back on that next week

and see what we can work on. In the second half they came out flying and we knew if they managed to keep ahead it would be tough. Then Tim Visser got the try to put us ahead and that was the springboard for the rest of the game. From that point momentum was with us.”

For his part, Barclay said that leadership remains a group activity, and praised Russell for his contribution. “I thought Finn was outstanding today – his control and his maturity,” the skipper said. “With Ali as well, he controlled the game and the guys that came on were outstanding.

“We want to get out of that cycle of having a good win and then not backing it up. We didn’t play well in the first half, but to go out there with no panicking and play with control and accuracy for 40 minutes – Wales are a very good side, and we made it hard.

“We got a bit of quick ball compared to the first half. I don’t know what the stats were, but discipline seems to have been much improved.”

And so to Twickenham, with little to fear and perhaps under less pressure than England, who if they beat Italy today will be chasing a record-equalling 18th consecutive Test win for a senior nation. This was a first win over Wales in a decade for Scotland, so why not have a crack at claiming a first victory in London since 1983?

“Yeah, we’re on a roll,” Cotter joked. “We know how hard it is at Twickenham. We may be there for the record game for England, so there will be a lot to play for. There are a number of reasons why we should get up for that game.”