DAVID SOLE
With just a week to go before Scotland’s opening match in the 2020 6 Nations Championship, Gregor Townsend’s preparations have been severely disrupted.
If the injury to Darcy Graham, one of Scotland’s most exciting attacking players wasn’t bad enough, the week has been overshadowed by an incident involving Finn Russell, who has been left out of the squad to face Ireland.
2020 is only a few weeks old, but it is turning into an “Annus horribilis” for the SRU, as a meeting of the Premiership and National One clubs also rejected the recommendations of the Gammell Review.
Coming on top of Mark Dodson’s exorbitant pay award, it’s not been a good start to the year.
The Russell affair has dominated the news and the story emerged slowly from the camp – the SRU initially playing a straight bat with a very nondescript press release about the fly-half returning to France.
It appears Russell spent too much time drinking after arriving at the team hotel and missed training.
He returned to France later in the week and will miss next week’s opening match against Ireland. Whether the situation is recoverable remains to be seen.
Russell is a talisman for Scotland and he masterminded the Lazaruslike comeback against England last year, but Adam Hastings will be eager to demonstrate he is more than
‘ It promises to be a cracking match, full of edge and needle
capable of filling Russell’s boots.
It will be interesting to see if Russell becomes Scotland’s Danny Cipriani – a player who oozes class but struggles to conform and fit into rigorous rules and patterns demanded by others around him.
It is all an unnecessary and unfortunate distraction for Gregor Townsend and his new captain, Stuart Hogg to deal with.
The coach and players are already under significant pressure after a very ordinary World Cup, which began with a lacklustre performance against their opponents next Saturday.
Setting the record straight should be a strong motivation for Hogg’s team which will be shorn of experience but not of talent, even without Russell and Graham.
Ireland, on the other hand are still smarting as a country that Scotland voted against them in their bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup and they will be highly motivated themselves after a poor World Cup.
It promises to be a cracking opening match, full of edge and needle.
As if that weren’t enough, Scotland then face the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield.
It’s hard to imagine a more challenging start to the campaign. Do well in both games and momentum builds. Lose both and the 6 Nations will feel like a very long slog.
Scotland need some good fortune on and off the field if they are going to do well – but luck is hard to come by at the moment.