For a decade and more, possibly as long ago as 1999 when Craig Chalmers’ knees finally cried “enough”, Scotland’s fly-halves have rarely enjoyed a run in the job. So when the same man is picked four times on the trot, as Finn Russell was on Thursday, heads start to turn.
While it is true that Russell may be benefiting from injuries to Duncan Weir and Ruaridh Jackson, the Glasgow No10 is looking suspiciously permanent in Scotland ranks. Saturday in Paris, where they have never won since Five Nations became Six, may be only the fifth time the 22-year-old has started a Test but Scotland’s new coach, the New Zealander Vern Cotter, seems to have settled on his man, ending the chopping and changing which characterised the 15 seasons since Chalmers himself hung up his boots.
If Jackson and Weir, along with Tom Heathcote, are the current challengers, it is not long since Greig Laidlaw, Saturday’s captain, played 10 consecutive games at fly-half for Scotland before the then coach Scott Johnson told him he was a No9 who could play 10, rather than a 10.
And before Laidlaw it was Dan Parks, Phil Godman and even Chris Paterson who flirted with the position without convincing a succession of coaches that they were natural 10s.
Now, though, Russell looks the part and, for a man who not so long ago was playing third division rugby and facing a future as a stone mason, he is sounding the part as well, barking out orders to his elders in Scottish ranks when they scored 11 tries in three Tests last November and even held on to New Zealand for 73 minutes.
That is quite something for a player fourth in the pecking order at Glasgow this time last year, even if it does not surprise his club coach and another of those Scottish fly-halves asked to play almost everywhere in the back line, Gregor Townsend.
According to Townsend, Russell did not make the Glasgow academy until he was 20. “He’s had an interesting life coming into international rugby,” the head coach says. “He’s not followed the familiar route. He wasn’t picked up by any academy but we immediately noticed something about him, a real toughness. But it was the way he grabbed his opportunity.”
The turning point seems to have come only two years ago when Russell took up a New Zealand scholarship organised by Glasgow and the Canterbury club in South Island. “He won player of the season without even competing the whole season,” adds Townsend. “He then had to bide his time at club level with Ayr. It was great experience getting out and playing, then this time last year he came into our team and really grabbed the chance.”
At the time Russell was considered an inside centre and, according to Townsend, put in an eye-catching performance againstMunster at Thomond Park. After that there was no stopping either Glasgow or their emerging fly-half, who took centre stage, jumping ahead of Weir, Jackson and Scott Wight when the Warriors played Ospreys in the Pro12 final.
Russell made his debut against the USA on Scotland’s summer tour but more recently those south of the border will have seen him directing Glasgow against Bath, when the Warriors played most of the rugby in both games – Russell inspiring an 80-metre try which could easily be the pick of the Champions Cup so far – but just missed out on qualification for the quarter-finals.
Two of the centres who helped carve open Bath that day, Alex Dunbar and Mark Bennett, will be alongside Russell in Paris while two more, Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour, will be close by at full-back and right-wing. Altogether there are 11 Warriors in Cotter’s match-day 23 and Townsend predicts they will be getting a lot more Test rugby.
“I can see a lot of stability in selection seeing that the team played so well in November,” says Townsend, who not only predicts a win for Scotland in Paris but was fly-half in 1999 when they last won at the then spanking new Stade de France in the final game of the old Five Nations.
All together Townsend played 82 times for Scotland and was twice a British & Irish Lion, playing 10, 12 or more often 13 in a decade of Test rugby. He also played for Border Reivers, Montpellier, Natal Sharks, Borders, Castres, Brive and Northampton so should recognise a prospect when he sees one and is glowing when he talks of Russell’s late-flowering talents, describing him as a “team man” and a fly-half who players for others.
Townsend also sees something of Jonny Wilkinson in the fine tackling of his man. “He’s a cool customer definitely,” he says. “You have to be [at 10] at the highest level. There are a lot of responsibilities to take and a lot of decisions to make and you have be able to handle stress. Finn’s got that and he’s also got a bit of competitiveness and you need to show that. The best 10s always have that – the Wilkinsons and Jonny Sexton.”
