MR SCOTLAND
Flying Finn seeks to make big name for himself as he steps out of the shadow of beauty queen sweetheart
No matter who we go against — the All Blacks, Fiji, Argentina or Samoa — it’s all the same to me and I’ll enjoy it
HE HAS tried to nonchalantly shrug off the moniker ‘Mr Scotland’ this week, but there is no escaping the excitement that Glasgow stand-off Finn Russell has generated by his performances leading up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The ‘nickname’ has come from team-mates and actually has nothing to do with the confident way he has taken on the mantle of the nation’s new No10 controller.
His girlfriend, Mhairi Fergusson, was last month crowned Miss Scotland, and it did not go unnoticed in the squad.
But providing an insight into his mood, and humour, Russell insists the only downside of Mhairi’s success has been ‘ folk start to recognise her rather than me now. What’s happening there?’.
Russell is unique, a player who was forced to leave his club — Stirling County — as a teenage talent and drop a division to Falkirk to get game-time.
A player who was knocking chunks of rock into shape, literally, working as a stonemason when the last World Cup was on and, after filling different roles in Scotland age-grade teams finally, a player who is emerging as the ambitious, exciting and controlling stand-off Scotland has been waiting for.
He did start the ball rolling by helping to steer Glasgow to the Guinness Pro12 title before his partner stepped into the limelight, but he speaks i n awe of the strict diet and training regime the international fashion graduate has put herself through to claim the beauty title, which still leads to the Miss World contest.
That is Russell — grounded, respectful and always seemingly bouncing with excitement.
There is an inevitability when a World Cup comes around to compare it to previous tournaments, but interviewing Russell reminds us of Scotland’s newness, that this is a squad with just a handful of players who know what a World Cup is like to play in.
Russell turns 23 on September 23, the day Scotland open their campaign against Japan, but his excitement at turning over a new page almost every month in his career at present is reflective of a squad that happily acknowledges it is new to the party, but plans to gatecrash it anyway.
‘The only team in the group I’ve played is USA but, with the analysis nowadays, you know what to expect,’ he said.
‘I’m still getting used to it all; it’s only my second year in international rugby. But I’m just enjoying it and, no matter who we go against — All Blacks, Fiji, Samoa, Argentina — it’s all just the same for me, and I’ll enjoy it.
‘With the 11 caps I’ve got, the majority have been with the backs in this squad... Greig (Laidlaw), Hoggy (Stuart Hogg), Tommy Seymour, Matt Scott.
‘We might not have that many caps, but we’ve got a lot together and with most of the players being from Glasgow and Edinburgh, we know each other well.
‘People may say that we are inexperienced, but I’m not too sure that will go against us. We’ll hopefully also have the excitement of wanting to go and chuck it about, going out to win every game, not worrying about things too much.
‘We were all disappointed to lose to France last weekend, but we could have had the draw if we’d wanted. The Italy game the week before was brilliant. Without being over confident, we know our own ability and what we can do.
‘For most of us, there’s no baggage, nothing from the last World Cup; it’s all just go on and give it a crack and see what we’ve got.’
There will be cries of naivety and those weary of great potential turned to dust in previous tournaments will be staving off cynicism, but Russell is different to most.
He has shown an ability to relish pressure — he smiles on-field when games are intense, and has a clutch of dance-move try celebrations — and that may explain why he has emerged quickly when given the opportunity and grasped it firmly.
The stand-off position, with the number of decisions that fall on the No10’s head, is often associated with experience, but as England acclaim Bath youngster George Ford so there is a similar excitement about the style of the Glasgow fly-half.
He has only completed one full season as a pro, experienced his first full pre-season training at pro level — due to injury suffered in Canada last year — and is still learning the game as it shapes and moves from a stand-off’s perspective virtually every year.
But he is receiving wise counsel, from Gregor Townsend at Glasgow and John Rutherford, the Scotland stand-off from the 1980s who also had a penchant for the audacious.
‘Gregor was obviously a worldclass stand-off and has done it all before I’ve done it, so he knows the situation,’ said Russell. ‘At the start of this season we were away at Ulster and he sat me down and spoke of his experience, and how he learned to change his game the way I need to.
‘It was the tactical side of the game we were talking about. We ran the ball a lot in that game away to Ulster, and he was explaining that I was a great runner but you’ve got to learn how to vary it and control the game, tactically, as well.
‘He was a runner as a stand-off and wanted to run everything, but learned how to play more tactically. He didn’t have someone like I do to help him out so it took him a lot longer to work it out, and for him to give me a few pointers and help me out with that was great because it has got me thinking about things more this season and looking at games in different ways.
‘That one game has taught me a lot about the need to look at controlling games tactically.
‘I think the way the game is
nowadays and the quality of the defences, if you don’t have a good balance kicking and running-wise then you’ll lose games just through the pressure teams can force on you through their defence.
‘With a four-game turnaround in the World Cup, I expect you have to learn quickly to adapt to different teams and situations, and if you don’t adapt quick enough you’ll lose games.
‘But, it will still be play what you see and have a crack!’
That is what lay behind Scotland running the final penalty in the Stade de France last week, when a kick at goal would most likely have secured a draw rather than the 19-16 defeat. And as the game moves on again to seek the unpredictable, coaches encourage players to out-think defences rather than outrun them, Russell could be emerging at the right time for Scotland.
‘If we’re five or six points behind and there’s five minutes to go and we get a penalty, and guys are like: “Take the penalty and get the bonus point”, I’ll always ask: “Why don’t we go to the corner so we can win the game?”.
‘I don’t see that as a gamble; I see it as trying to win the game. Why kick and get a losing bonus point when you could win it? I will always back myself and the team to score, and had that pass from Sean Maitland to “Stroker” (Alasdair Strokosch) gone to hand in France we would have made another five metres, another couple of phases and scored.
‘A draw feels the same to me as a loss — it’s not a win. Now, it’s about winning in the World Cup and what we did against Italy or France is in the past. This is the biggest event in rugby and I can’t wait to get down there and get cracking.’