DRAMA DIDN’T HAVE TO BE CRISIS
Sole was right to ask if maverick Finn could have been given more leeway by Townsend
ABSOLUTE scenes at the Oriam. A gaggle of lads guzzling straight from the bottle, belching like navvies and getting just a little rowdy.
The lingering influence of Finn Russell’s alleged Boozegate tribute act?
No, this wasn’t Scotland’s elite rugby players paying homage to their absent team-mate in a manner befitting his departure.
Just the younger members of a mother-and-toddler crowd competing for table space in The Bistro at the National Performance Centre. Wild bunch, those babies.
Having pitched up at this popular hub of sporting gossip on other business yesterday, your Sportsmail correspondent didn’t exactly stumble across a squad weeping like children. Far from it.
Impossible as it was to ignore the group of extremely large men taking their coffee break in full Scotland training kit, any observer would have to confess that spirits appeared good. Possibly even jaunty.
What a contrast to the mood outside of this bubble. What a difference to the despair and desperation that has left so many convinced of our impending Six Nations doom. All a full week before our boys have so much as touched a ball — or an opponent — in anger.
Grand Slam-winning captain David Sole spoke on behalf of a majority yesterday when, in a blog for his School for CEOs brand, he laid bare the price of Russell’s absence.
Sole, who argued that ‘an experienced and effective leader’ might have prevented the Russell situation from escalating into a full-blown exclusion case, can see fault on both sides of the row.
But the upshot of the whole affair leaves him in no doubt over the likely consequences, the former skipper declaring: ‘Scotland have been deprived of (one of) their most talismanic players. And the rugby-following public will be denied Russell demonstrating his talents on the biggest stage.
‘A Scotland XV without Russell is not as good or threatening to the opposition as a team that includes him. The maverick will have to wait for another day to show off his skills.’
Here’s the problem with every attempt to put positive top-spin on the Russell (right) situation, the flaw in each expression of bold intent that you will hear from everyone in the Scotland camp between now and Saturday. It won’t wash with a rugby public condemned to break our own records for fearing the worst.
Where normally the pessimism doesn’t start to kick in until halftime of the first fixture, this year’s Six Nations slump in confidence has hit us all pretty early. The reasons should be obvious.
One week from today, against an Ireland side who have come to enjoy bullying the Scots of late, Gregor Townsend’s men will kick off their Championship without their best player.
And not just the most skilful individual, in the way some teams can point to a brilliant winger or outstanding centre.
By dint of his position on the pitch, Russell is both our superstar talent and the absolute fulcrum through which everything — absolutely everything — has to go.
The No10 sets the tone. He sets the pace and the rhythm of play. Some teams even use two of them, picking one to play at inside-centre.
Russell is, or has been, the playmaker, the game breaker, the chance creator and risk-taker whose desire to push boundaries is embedded in his DNA.
The kind of free-spirited genius, in other words, who perhaps merits a little more indulgence from management?
Sole freely compares Russell to other ‘troublesome’ superstars down the years, pointing out: ‘There are many examples of individuals in sporting teams not conforming. Danny Cipriani and Gavin Henson from the world of rugby; Kevin Pietersen in cricket.
‘And there are many examples of mavericks in the world of business — those star performers who have a reputation for delivering for the organisation, but who do so in often unpleasant ways.’ Laying out a list of different types, Sole’s main focus was on ‘good performers who demonstrate the wrong behaviours’, describing them as ‘the toughest category to deal with.’ So many details of Russell’s relationship with Townsend remain private between two grown men, which means that the best anyone can do is take a good guesstimate of whether Sunday evening’s events represented merely the final straw for the gaffer. Sole wrote: ‘If this was a one-off, then the subsequent sanction from his coach and peers, and the actions of the player himself, seem both harsh and petulant respectively (Finn Russell is reported to have chosen to leave the squad).
‘On the other hand, if this was symptomatic of more habitual behaviours, then perhaps stronger actions would have been merited.
‘An experienced and effective leader may have adopted a different approach. They might have chosen to talk through the issue in order to understand the root causes beneath the underlying behaviour.
‘They could have looked at appropriate ways to support the player, while not avoiding the right level of challenge around his actions.
‘Perhaps a public apology to his team-mates, some demonstration of humility and remorse and a commitment to change behaviourally and to follow whatever team protocols exist could have ensued.’
That may yet happen, although not before the Ireland game, with Russell having returned to French club Racing 92 just as Scotland take the unusual step of heading to Spain for a pre-tournament training break.
The travelling group will also be without Darcy Graham, yesterday’s confirmation that the Edinburgh star had sustained ligament damage adding the whole ‘lucky white heather’ feel to the week.
Injuries and illness happen, of course. There won’t be a team in this Six Nations who are left unaffected by the odd body blow.
But the Russell farce feels, well, so entirely avoidable. So typically Scottish. And we’re going to need every ounce of another great Caledonian trait — grim forbearance — just to get through the coming weeks.
Once the remaining players have been briefed on how to answer the inevitable flurry of questions, of course, they will be ready to make appropriately bold statements of intent.
Adam Hastings, with his haul of seven starts from 16 appearances, will be backed to bring his own considerable array of skills to a position he knows well.
Duncan Weir, a consistently overlooked talent, has already come into the squad as cover.
The new defence coach has been working the lads hard. And they’ve got almost a full week of sunshine on their backs as prep for Dublin in January. Away we, erm, go?
Pass that bottle. We’ll have whatever Finn was drinking.