FINN’S BACK IN MIX
Fly-half could win shock recall for All Blacks clash
SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend admits he may be forced to call up Finn Russell to face the All Blacks.
Townsend said the Racing 92 fly-half, who he controversially left out of his squad for the Autumn Test series, was ‘in the mix’ to face New Zealand at BT Murrayfield next weekend amid fears that Adam Hastings will miss the fixture through injury.
Hastings had to come off early in the second half in the win over Fiji after a thumping tackle left the fly-half with a head knock and a knee injury.
Russell showed he is in great form if he is called upon after scoring one try, one penalty and three conversions in Racing 92’s bonus-point 44-20 win at home to Perpignan yesterday.
Townsend, who still has Blair Kinghorn and the inexperienced Ross Thompson available at ten, said: ‘Adam will go through a second process after his head injury and he also has a knee issue that is getting looked at as well and that requires a scan.
‘We will find out more about
Adam’s fitness over the next few days but I thought he did well in a lot of areas against Fiji.
‘He didn’t get as much ball in the first half, but when we started changing direction to try to pick off defenders, he looked confident and took his try well.
‘Blair, when he came on for Adam, found himself in a stopstart game but I thought he put pace on things.
‘As for Finn, I haven’t spoken to him since the squad has been together, but he will be in the mix, of course (for New Zealand).
‘How are relations? Fine, yeah. I don’t phone up people who are not in the squad regularly unless there’s something to talk about but I’d imagine Finn will be available. He was disappointed not to be selected in the original squad. If we decide to bring in another ten, he’s one of the ones we’ll be looking at.’
Townsend admitted his team would have to improve greatly — especially when it came to their discipline — to have any chance of making history by beating New Zealand for the first time ever. They coughed up 12 penalties — six in the first 20 minutes against Fiji — and 14 in total in the loss to Australia the previous weekend.
‘With our discipline, we need to tidy it up,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘We can’t be giving teams too many opportunities and we know that, so we will be looking to rectify things.
‘What do we have to do better against New Zealand? We can’t give away as many penalties, that’s for sure. Sometimes games have high penalty counts but we have to set our own standards. Single figures is always where you want to get to when it comes to conceding penalties.
‘Overall, we know we have a lot of improvement to do to challenge New Zealand at BT Murrayfield next Sunday as they have got a very strong team that just beat Wales. We also saw their depth with the performance of their second team against Ireland A last Friday night.
‘They know they will have a really tough tour, coming to the northern hemisphere and with the different styles they are going to face, but they are still one of the best teams in the world, clearly.
‘We have never beaten New Zealand in our history, though we have come close. We will take inspiration from our performance five years ago, but also from what other teams have done to New Zealand over the past few weeks and months.
We will have to be much better; we know that. For a lot of players, that was their first game for Scotland this season, so we will improve after the learnings we take from today and know it is going to take our best performance to win next week.’
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie said his team would come out ‘all guns blazing’ against the All Blacks after taking confidence from their second-half showing against Fiji.
‘We were frustrated with our discipline in the first half. We knew they’d be in the game early doors, but we felt that we were fitter than them,’ said Ritchie.
‘We knew that if they were still in the game, we could get them in the last 20 minutes. We tired them out and did some good things. We probably gave them a bit too much territory, but we found a way to win.
‘I was disappointed we lost to Australia a fortnight ago but we trusted ourselves and our systems against Fiji and tided up our act in the second half. We will now go full guns blazing against the All Blacks and we are confident we can get a result.’
Fiji head coach Vern Cotter, who was in charge of Scotland for three years until Townsend took over in 2017, said he was proud of the way his Fiji team, that has been disrupted by injuries, managed to stay in the game.
‘We were in it at half-time,’ said Cotter. ‘There was belief in the team. We got into their 22 a couple of times and I think the more time we spend together the more points we’ll get from those situations, so there was great effort from the boys. Once again, at that level, you’ve got to be more accurate, although overall my thoughts are positive ones.’
Cotter said it had been emotional for him to return to BT Murrayfield in the opposition box as he wished Scots well against the All Blacks.
‘It’s a game of rugby at home for Scotland and anything can happen these days,’ said Cotter.
‘New Zealand will be well prepared, they’ll be aware of the dangers Scotland bring and they won’t take the game easy.
‘It was emotional and moving being back at Murrayfield. It’s a great stadium and it’s a great moment for any rugby player or coach to hear Flower of Scotland.’
We tired them out, did good things. We found a way to win.