BITTER EXILE

Banished by Scotland... but Russell opts to play for Racing

FINN RUSSELL has chosen to play for his club side in France today in a bid to escape the bitter fallout from his spectacular row with Scotland.

Sportsmail can reveal that Racing 92 had initially given their superstar fly-half the weekend off to keep him injury-free for the start of the Six Nations.

However, as Gregor Townsend’s crisis deepened with the news that winger Darcy Graham will miss the opening two matches against Ireland and England with a knee injury, Russell has told his French employers he wants to put the controversial events of this week behind him by starting their Top14 fixture against Castres.

All eyes will now be on Scotland’s top player this afternoon as he lines up in his first match since storming out of the Scotland team hotel last Sunday evening.

Following claims that he breached squad discipline with a late-night drinking session, Russell was handed a one-match ban ruling him out of the Six Nations opener in Dublin

next Saturday. It is thought that he was disciplined for allegedly failing to stop drinking when asked repeatedly by team-mates and backroom staff at the first Scotland squad get-together. He then left the team hotel and was absent from training the following morning. Told to attend a meeting with head coach Townsend on Monday evening, he was informed that he would not be selected for the Ireland game. Rejecting an offer to travel to Spain for next week’s training camp, he returned to Paris where he has been training with his Racing 92 team-mates since Thursday. The obvious fear now is that the 27-year-old will be injured while playing in a match that his club had originally been prepared to let him miss. Scotland’s only other worldclass player, new captain Stuart Hogg, has been permitted by Exeter Chiefs to sit out today’s Gallagher Premiership clash with Sale Sharks to keep him fresh for the Six Nations kick-off. In Russell’s continued absence, Adam Hastings will start at fly-half for Scotland against Ireland a week today. Worcester fly-half Duncan Weir, who hasn’t played for Scotland since the 2017

Six Nations, was called up yesterday as cover at No 10. Weir has been in good form in the English top flight and is an experienced campaigner with 27 caps under his belt. Things continue to go from bad to worse for Townsend, however. While the Russell debacle rumbles on with no obvious solution in sight, the Scotland head coach has also lost the services of first-choice winger Graham after he picked up a knee injury in training. The Edinburgh star will now miss both the Ireland match and the following week’s

Calcutta Cup clash with England at BT Murrayfield. His Edinburgh team-mate, full-back Blair Kinghorn, is likely to play out of position and start on the wing in his place against Andy Farrell’s side at the Aviva Stadium. Scotland fly out to Spain tomorrow for a training camp near Alicante where they will stay for five days before flying straight to Dublin on Thursday. Townsend has trimmed a further three players from his original 38-man squad after Russell left of his own accord. The trio who miss out are Edinburgh prop Jamie Bhatti, Glasgow Warriors back-row Tom Gordon and Sale Sharks wing Byron McGuigan.