Fly-half Hastings backed by legendary father
Glasgow’s playmaker looks ready for huge task of replacing Finn Russell, writes Tom Cary
How do you solve a problem like Finn Russell? It is a question Scotland rugby fans have been asking, with increasing urgency, ever since the Racing 92 player’s impromptu drinking session at the Scotland team hotel two weekends ago was made public.
How do you replace one of Scotland’s few genuinely worldclass players? A man who has been at the heart of all of Scotland’s biggest performances over the past few years, from their first victory over France for 10 years in 2016, to their first victory over Wales in 10 years in 2017 to their first win over England for 10 years in
2018, to last year’s extraordinary draw at Twickenham? A man with magic in his hands and the audaciousness to deploy it at the most unexpected moments. It may well prove impossible.
Scotland were odds on to finish in the bottom two of this Six Nations even before Russell decided to hit the self-destruct button. Few pundits give them a chance in Dublin on Saturday.
Ireland have lost just one Six Nations match at home in the past six years while Scotland have won just once in Dublin in the entire Six Nations era – in 2010.
Adam Hastings will hope to ram those gloomy predictions down people’s throats this weekend. The son of Scotland legend Gavin, Hastings is still just 23 and has yet to start a Six Nations match. But barring some unforeseen change of plan he is expected to be named at 10 when Gregor Townsend unveils his squad for the Ireland match today.
A natural ball player in the Russell mould, Hastings has always had ability and he has been showing it regularly since Russell decamped to Paris at the beginning of last season. Townsend described Hastings’s recent performance in the Champions Cup against Exeter as “up there with the best I have seen from a stand-off over the last year”, adding he was “more than ready to start for Scotland”.
Hastings’s father agrees. “You have to differentiate between speaking as a dad and, of course, as a former player,” Gavin, speaking on behalf of Land Rover, told The Daily Telegraph this week. “But
I do believe Adam is ready. He has been playing week in, week out for Glasgow for a good season and a half now. He has learnt every week, going to away grounds. He’s becoming more comfortable with the pressure. He was there at the Aviva Stadium two years ago – not in the match-day squad but they take a few guys for the experience – and he can take a bit of confidence from that, too. And his last performance for Scotland wasn’t all that bad.”
That came in Scotland’s victory over Russia at the World Cup, one of the few highlights of a fairly dispiriting campaign. Hastings scored 26 points in an all-action display, lending some credence to the words of Dave Rennie, his Warriors coach, who said last May that he had the potential to be better than Russell.
Hastings has admitted in the past to struggling with such lofty predictions. Growing up with his surname he has experienced pressure all his life. “At Bath I used to get so nervous before games,” he told The Scotsman in the autumn. “On the way to the ground I’d see folk in pubs enjoying a pint and wish that was me.”
He believes he has turned a corner now, though. In that same interview Hastings was even prepared to discuss his relative merits up against Scotland’s first-choice 10.
“Finn’s a friend and a fantastic player, so I don’t really want to start bagging him, but I’d maybe say I’ve got more of a running game than him. He’s a very good defender and I’ve got strides to make there. He’s got a brilliant passing game as well; I’d describe mine as good. I’d actually say we’re quite similar players.”
Hastings appears to have his big chance now, albeit it has arrived in strange circumstances. It is not going to be straightforward. Greig Laidlaw’s international retirement means Scotland’s half-back pairing – whether Townsend goes with Ali Price or George Horne at scrumhalf – will be a callow one. No one, though, is expecting too much. And that lack of pressure might just work to Scotland’s advantage.
“At some stage Scotland are going to beat Ireland again in Dublin and it may happen on Saturday,” Gavin Hastings added. “Adam’s played pretty well in some European games this year. So I would expect him to go out and play his game.”