Finn can shine after Euro blip
Paterson brought in to restore Russell’s self-belief
GREGOR Townsend has brought in his f ormer Scotland colleague Chri s Paterson as he looks to get hi s tr o ubl e d stand- off Finn Russell firing for today’s vital Pro12 showdown with league leaders Munster.
The 22-year- old had back- t o - back disasters in Glasgow Warriors’ European Champions Cup defeats to Toulouse — he was yellow- carded in the 19-11 away defeat and then missed two simple penalty kicks in the 12-9 loss to the French giants at Scotstoun.
However Townsend believes that, with help from the most- capped player in Scottish rugby history who was also once renowned as one of world rugby’s most accurate goal-kickers, Russell can show his loss of form was merely a blip.
‘It is great for Finn to have an opportunity to pl a y ag a i n, especially goal- kicking- wise, to show what he can do and why he has done very well for us over the l ast couple of seasons,’ said Townsend, who insisted he never thought about making a change at No 10. ‘No kicker I’ve heard of has a 100-per-cent record. You are always going to miss a kick.
‘It is making sure that does not happen too often and, if it does happen, clearing your mind of those thoughts. Having been an average goal-kicker myself, it is the mental side you have to deal with if you miss some.
‘Whatever goes on in your mind that gets you away f rom the proper process and leads to poor technical execution is what you have to work on.
‘It is controlling those thoughts and having a clear f ocus on whatever it is you have as your triggers when you take kicks. If you do that right, you are going to get the ball between the posts more often than not.
‘I have spoken to Finn this week and Chris Paterson came in as well. What happened with Finn this week is part of the process of learning what he can do better.
‘The important thing to focus on is that he is a very good goal-kicker and last year he was leading the league in terms of percentages. For someone in his first year of being a professional, that wa s a tremendous feat.
‘He has worked hard this week and we expect him to kick well today.
‘We have faith in him and in any player who ma yb e has something they did not do as well as they planned (but) wants to go out and play again straight afterwards. Sometimes you don’t have that opportunity but Finn does have it this week. He has been playing well, has learned from his tip tackle that led to his yellow card in Toulouse and I am confident he will do well against Munster.’
Townsend has made a total of 10 changes to the side that lost at home to the French last weekend, with three key players missing through injury.
Peter Murchie takes over at full-back from Stuart Hogg, who has been ruled out with a knee injury. Sean Lamont comes in on the wing in place of Sean Maitland, who has a leg knock, while Alex Dunbar is r ul e d o ut wi t h concussion and will be replaced by Peter Horne.
‘I expect Hogg and Maitland to be back within a week, Alex Dunbar is suffering from concussion so that could be a week or longer,’ said Townsend. ‘We have made changes and there are a couple of people in this team absolutely buzzing to get an opportunity, which is a very good thing, and one of them is Sean Lamont.
‘ It i s great when you have experienced guys like Sean saying he can’t wait to play and get the opportunity to get out there and use all the work he has put into training in a big game.’
Lamont wasn’t picked f or the f i rst European match away to To ul o u s e but came off the bench against them at Scotstoun and now wants to show he deserves more game time.
‘The guys who get the chance today like me will be determined to l ay down a marker and t hat is a positive for Glasgow,’ said the man with 91 Scotland caps to his name. ‘ Gregor has a rotation system at the club so if you are off the boil, then you know that there are guys behind
you pushing you hard. ‘ It works really well as complacency is a killer and there certainly is none of that at Glasgow, especially going into a match against the league leaders who we have had some real tough matches with in the past. ‘To beat Munster, we need to hold the ball more as we didn’t do that enough against Toulouse and the turnover differential was very poor from our point of view in that regard.
‘If you don’t have the ball you aren’t going to hurt anyone, which is why we need to keep it and take the game to Munster today if we want to have a chance of beating them.’ A victory for Townsend’s men this afternoon would see them leapfrog Munster to the top of the league.
GLASGOW WARRIORS: Murchie; Lamont, Vernon, Horne, van der Merwe; Russell, Matawalu; Reid, Brown, Murray, Nakarawa, Gray, Harley, Holmes, Strauss.
MUNSTER: Murphy; Conway, Howard, Hurley, Zebo; Hanrahan, Murray; Ryan, O’Byrne, Archer, Holland, O’Connell, O’Mahony, Dougall, Copeland.
Kick-off: 2.40pm. Live on Sky Sports 1.