Scotland 2022 summer tour

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Scotland 2022 Six Nations Lookahead

A place to discuss the rollercoaster of dark horse conversation and sheer despair. Somewhere in-between, someone will go off on a mild tangent.

Schedule
5th Feb - England (H)
12th Feb - Wales (A)
26th Feb - France (H)
12th March - Italy (A)
19th March - Ireland (A)

Scotland's recent performances
2021: 4th (3 wins, same as 2nd)
2020: 4th (3 wins, same points as 3rd)
2019: 5th (1 win, 1 draw)
2018: 3rd (3 wins, same as 2nd)
2017: 4th (3 wins, same points as 2nd)

It’s a difficult one. Who is more pish, us or Eddie’s gang?

It’s a long way to go so for now I’ll leave my prediction in my back pocket.

In the name of the wee man in the tartan troosers though, we have to beat wales next year.

Hazel Sapling wrote:Similar schedule except we swap Ireland and Italy around. At least we should finish on somewhat of a high.

We have a shot to win it if we beat England and have Wales and Ireland at home (whilst France could lose to Ireland and England away)...how long until I am allowed to say we are dark horses?

I think we'd come under the realms of dark matter and black holes, that's how dark a horse we currently are!

Highland Shaun wrote:He was at fault for Stades first try though.

That was a comical oh so Russellesque moment. To be honest I don’t feel he was at fault there because he was tap tackled.

BigGee wrote:Always good to get England first up. They won't fancy losing to us at home twice though!

A lot of pressure on them for that fixture, that would be a pretty significant record to win four in a row against England. You never know!

I know that I have raised the topic of the need for sports psychologists to be employed for our mens team, and I am convinced that this would be of benefit across all of our national teams.
But, I think we also need to seriously  look at our attack, in combination with the psychologist.
Having seen the mens, u20s and now the women's teams generate so much possession and territorial advantage, it is plain that there are things wrong with our approach. We are unable to turn the possession and territory into points.
Our attack is toothless and blunt. We desperately need some new ideas.
I just can't understand why we are so poor in attack now, after being so powerful in the second half of the last decade.
Any ideas anyone?

Well one reason is again, Sean maitland having a decent game for sarries. Running a lovely line for his try.

Yet he can’t can’t get into the Scotland side over Steyn???

Or over the past 3 or 4 weeks an on fire Hutchinson scoring and making sublime tries but can’t get in over Johnson or Harris.

Kinda sums up our lack of attack I would think

I have not watched the ladies, so can't comment.

The U20s just have hardly played any rugby these past 2 years, i would suggest it is quality gametime these players need more than a psychologist.

For the mens team, i would be amazed if there was not some sort of psychological support svailable should players require it. You can't force it on plsyers though, they have to see it as being beneficial to them and the team.

Russell alluded to this when he had his falling out with Toonie. His version being that Toonie was trying to steer him to getting some help from the psychologist with a drinking problem., which he may or may not have.

This season was a shambles all round for the mens team, there may be bigger issues than a sports psychologist could sort out!

tigertattie wrote:Well one reason is again, Sean maitland having a decent game for sarries. Running a lovely line for his try.

Yet he can’t can’t get into the Scotland side over Steyn???

Or over the past 3 or 4 weeks an on fire Hutchinson scoring and making sublime tries but can’t get in over Johnson or Harris.

Kinda sums up our lack of attack I would think

Should we be worried that a team feature 3 of our current prominent players (Gray, Skinner and Hogg) we're pumped by a team featuring 3 of our old timers? (Swinson, Maitland and Taylor)

tigertattie wrote:Well one reason is again, Sean maitland having a decent game for sarries. Running a lovely line for his try.

Yet he can’t can’t get into the Scotland side over Steyn???

Or over the past 3 or 4 weeks an on fire Hutchinson scoring and making sublime tries but can’t get in over Johnson or Harris.

Kinda sums up our lack of attack I would think

Surely Hutch gets in the summer tour squad and possibly gets on the field, SURELY!!?

Also a valid case for Huw Jones at fullback if he can continue his good form. Hogg is a legend of course but getting the 15 shirt every game shouldn’t be a given. Rob Baxter was quite happy to drop him when he felt it necessary.

Hoggy will surely sit out this summers tour, he would likely have done so regardless of partygate.

Good opportunity to bring Shuggy back in with Ollie Smith maybe getting a run out against Chile and backing him up.

Kinghorn back to 15.....??

Just as I was saying I was coming round to the Kinghorn at 10 experiment, he, like most of the Edinburgh team to be fair, had a shocker against Zebre, which has open up all the doubts again!

Anyway, we are likely to be committed to it now, especially if Finn, as he should, sits out the summer tour as well.

Thompson has not really looked like an international 10 in waiting this season, though maybe a run out against Chile will do his confidence no harm. That just leaves Hastings and Kinghorn, unless Toonie has someone else up his sleeve that we have not heard of yet.

Hastings had a decent game for Glos again. Quite a delightful little blind pass out the back door for LRZ to run in. If it was Finn or Marcus smith that did that pass the media would have been creaming themselves.

Hastings has to tour. He may want the summer off though. The English league isn’t known for being gentle.

The tour needs to have a lot of fringe players involved. Young players need to be keen and will by into the Toonie process. If we’re spluttering with a keen squad then we’ll know it’s not that the first XV have gone to pot but actually it is Toonie and his coaching.

If the kids play a blinder then some of the established players may need to have a good long hard look at their approach to Scotland.

bsando wrote:Also a valid case for Huw Jones at fullback if he can continue his good form. Hogg is a legend of course but getting the 15 shirt every game shouldn’t be a given. Rob Baxter was quite happy to drop him when he felt it necessary.

St Shug has actually been playing well for Quins and they really seem to like him. 

Why on earth wouldn't you take him? This is the Waifs and Strays Tour as far as I'm concerned. All those inexplicably left on the fringes of the last 6N squad should tour and all should be allowed to have a decent number of minutes.

A heavy duty autumn for Scotland who play Australia, Fiji, NZ and Argentina on consecutive weekends.

The first match against Australia looks like it is outside the international window, which will make it an interesting test of squad depth!

Not sure that's a good idea but not a surprise given the need for extra revenue. Our resources will be severely tested.

Australia with only domestic players is not ideal!

RDW wrote:Not sure that's a good idea but not a surprise given the need for extra revenue. Our resources will be severely tested.

Australia with only domestic players is not ideal!

I guess Australia won't have any overseas players either, which will bring them down a bit as well but yes certainly a tough opener.

Henry Arundel, that very classy young London Irish FB is the latest player to be moving into an international tug of war. Three way this time as he qualifies for England, wales and Scotland.

Scotland apparently see him as the long term successor to Hoggy, which having seen him do an coast to coast try in thee U20s game against us, I can understand why.

Wales also presumably could use the services of a good young FB with their legends getting on in years as well.

England presumably just want him capped and banked to stop anyone else getting him while we find out just how good he really is! There is talk of him going on their tour this summer as an apprentice as well.

This one could be interesting in where it pans out. The lad will have some decisions to make in the not to distant future methinks.

If he wants an immediate role, Wales is the best opening. Wales have Liam Williams and....1/2P? McNicholl? Holmes (who is supposedly leaving)? Ioan Lloyd is the young gun I like but there are questions on whether he is a 10, a wing or a FB.

Hogg is starting to get an age where anything can happen. Maitland is at the end (if not finished), H Jones has done something to Toonie, Blain has been pushed out of his development by Immelman...Ollie Smith would be his main competition after 2025 unless Blain can get more gametime.

England on the other hand appear to have handed the reigns to Stewart. They also have Furbank, Freeman and Hodge as potential young back-ups to replace Watson.

Anyway you cut it, it is up to him. I am not sure he is the starter yet for LI and there is a big gap between u20's and club and then international level. He is probably a couple of years away and there is no need to get capped yet.

As for our summer tour, it should be a good test. Certainly if we want to be competing with the best, then we have to be playing them regularly (and occasionally win).

We have pretty healthy recent records against Australia, Fiji and Argentina. Even NZ we pushed to the limit last time.

Mark Palmer interview with Rory Hutch in the Times.

He is clearly keen to get his place back in the Scotland team over the summer.





Reducing the workload for professional players while keeping the money flowing is one of rugby’s most pressing challenges, but don’t expect to hear Rory Hutchinson saying that he fancies a rest any time soon.

The centre is, in fact, desperate for his own season to stretch until mid-July. If it does, it will mean that he has moved at least one big step closer to achieving two objectives that have proved frustratingly elusive over the past couple of years, namely competing for silverware with Northampton Saints and winning back his Scotland place.

The Saints have missed out on the Gallagher Premiership play-offs in each of the past two seasons, but sit fourth going into Friday night’s game against Harlequins at Franklin’s Gardens. With three rounds of matches remaining, Chris Boyd’s men are unlikely to make up the nine-point gap to third-placed Quins, but Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester, London Irish, Wasps and Sale Sharks are all within seven points of knocking them out of the top four altogether.


There could yet be any number of twists and turns, as well as on-course collisions, as this tightly packed race enters the home straight.

“Looking at the table, it’s so tight, so competitive, so we can’t afford to slip off,” Hutchinson, 26, says. “We’ve got to take it week on week, keep climbing and make sure we stay in that top four. It really is on us now.

“If we look back over the past couple of years where we haven’t made top four, it’s been really disappointing because we know we have a squad that can compete. We don’t want to be looking back next season thinking, ‘Why couldn’t we achieve anything with the squad we had?’

“We are hungry. We won silverware in our first year under Boydy with the Premiership Cup [in 2019], and we want to go and push for the Premiership as we are out of Europe now. I’d hate to look back on my career and think I haven’t won silverware or been right in there competing for it.”

The Saints underlined their intent with a dramatic success away to Bath last weekend, where they came from 31-12 down to win 36-31. The display showcased yet again this side’s ability to score freely, quickly and from anywhere, but they also displayed their resilience. Hutchinson is convinced that Boyd, the former Hurricanes head coach who arrived from Super Rugby in 2018, has helped drive a “big shift” stylistically right across the Premiership, away from its traditional set-piece roots and towards more expansive ideals.

“You can tell the style of rugby has changed within the league, and in world rugby in general,” Hutchinson says. “It used to be hit up the middle, forwards round the corner, dominant physical battles. But the game is being played with so many more ball-players now, playing from deeper and playing a generally more exciting brand of rugby. It’s been really good, especially for spectators, and if we’re trying to grow the game.”

Their opponents, Harlequins, also like to throw the ball around. With the past six Saints fixtures having produced an average of 64 points, the expected sell-out Midlands crowd will arrive full of expectation.

“Against a team like Harlequins, you can’t switch off,” Hutchinson says. “They play quite a loose game of rugby, they take risks, but obviously it pays off for them. I’m still trying to figure out how we did it against Bath, to be honest. We practise a lot in training being able to score fast. We back our fitness and we got the job done.


“Credit to us, but we can’t forget about the first 60 minutes, which was poor. A lot of people would have thought the game was gone, but we stuck to our process. We know that with the way we play, we can score tries quickly, so we stuck to our game plan and got the job done.”

One of Hutchinson’s back-line rivals on Friday night is Huw Jones, normally a centre but who has been excellent at full back of late for Tabai Matson’s side. The pair made headlines in 2019 when the Scotland head coach, Gregor Townsend, took neither to the World Cup, and Hutchinson has since won only two further caps to add to the three he claimed in warm-up matches.


The most recent of these came off the bench against Italy in the 2020 Six Nations, but with the Saints having used him predominantly as a second-playmaker No 12 this season, rather than in his more familiar outside-centre berth, it has prompted further discussion about how he might pick up some of the creative slack from Finn Russell. Neither Sione Tuipulotu nor Sam Johnson particularly impressed at inside centre during the Six Nations, while Bath’s Cameron Redpath is likely to be excused for the summer tour to Argentina as he recovers from neck surgery.


Hutchinson was in the Six Nations squad but spent those weeks traipsing back and forth between Edinburgh and Northampton without ever making a match-day 23. That experience has hardened his resolve to be part of the three-Test series against the Pumas in July as well as a possible warm-up game in Chile.

“There was a lot of travelling during the Six Nations,” he says. “I wouldn’t say it was easy but to be back in the environment, be back training after quite a long period out was really good. It had been a while.

“The first step is getting back in. Everyone in the squad wants to play, and the experience has given me that hunger where next time, hopefully I’m not coming back on a Tuesday night after coming up on the Sunday. It gives you that motivation where you don’t really want to do that again. But just to be back in the fold was great.

“You always go up to camp not knowing what team will be selected, but at the end of the day they selected the team they want and I’ve just got to work harder to be able to get into that 23. Fingers crossed for a few good performances, a good end to the season and hopefully I might be involved for summer tour.

“The style of rugby we play at Northampton, with a ball-playing 12, so that works well for me. I’ve also been defending at 13 quite a lot so I get a bit of both. It’s been good. I’ve played a bit of 15 as well and I’m happy to cover in those areas.

“You’ve just got to play what’s in front of you, and for me I just want to get back to where I was. I feel like I’m getting back to that place now, and I’m enjoying my rugby. I definitely want to be involved this summer. You can’t say no to being able to represent Scotland. I’ve got a job to do here, so I need to focus on that, on finishing the season as strongly as we can, but if that opportunity arises, I’ll be grabbing it.”

Well watching Saints beat Quins tonight in a fantastic game, you would have to say on any sort of form guide, Shuggy is way ahead of Hoggy as the best Scottish FB atm. He had another fantastic game.

Hutchy also played really well and just seems to bring so much to the Saints attack. How someone like Toonie, who was a kindred spirit can keep overlooking him seems bizzare. Surely he will feature this summer.

BigGee wrote:Well watching Saints beat Quins tonight in a fantastic game, you would have to say on any sort of form guide, Shuggy is way ahead of Hoggy  as the best Scottish FB atm. He had another fantastic game.

Hutchy also played really well and just seems to bring so much to the Saints attack. How someone like Toonie, who was a kindred spirit can keep overlooking him seems bizzare. Surely he will feature this summer.

Came here to say the same thing! How good is it to see Shug back to being the player he should’ve been for years, he’s an absolute nightmare to defend against when he’s playing like this. Hutch also excellent. Time for Gregor to stop picking his favourites and start getting the form players in the side

Will have to watch the replay of this one, both sides are on good form so was going to be a great match. Fantastic to see Hutchinson and Jones hitting good form heading into business end of season and the summer.

Just watched the extended highlights and both were indeed very good. I had no idea Jones had a big kick on him. He made a lot of breaks and looks like the Huw Jones of old.

Hutchinson is completely central to everything Northampton do in attack. All of the plays go through him, and he's an individual threat himself. And that in itself is part of his problem getting into the Scotland team.

For all of Toonie's reign, other than one game for Redpath he's played a component banger at 12. If he's going to ask Hutchinson to play the same role there's no point having him (perhaps why he's been overlooked). Problem is do you completely change your attacking shape to accommodate him? Given how stodgy our attack has been, and the fact we also have Redpath when he's not injured, I think the answer to that is an obvious yes.

It’s simple, and I’m not a highly paid rugby coach

Hutch plays 12 with Harris at 13 (as Harris isn’t going anywhere as he’s the hardest working man in world rugby and the defensive back Toonie wants)

Or if you want Harris out then hutch can play at 13 outside Sam Johnson.

Or if you don’t want SJ near the squad you have hutch at 12 and shug at 13.

But to me it’s hutch at 12, Harris 13 and shug at 15 for the summer and if hogg gets a bit mojo back after a summer off, hogg back to 15 and shug covering 13-15 on the bench.

With shug it’s not like he’s come out of nowhere. Since moving away from the rot at Glasgow he’s been back to himself. He’s been playing well all season for Quinns.

All these poor sods who have been in the squad but overlooked need to get the shout this summer. Not least because others need a rest, but they simply deserve the shot.

I was in a post night shift state of near zombism yesterday, so I put on the Gloucester v Bath trashing that I had on record from the weekend but had not got around to watching yet.

Got to be said, the Scottish players for the Cherry and Whites all had really good games.

Harris was MoM and was good both sides of the ball. In the dismal Scottish attack this past season, it can be easy to forget that he has an attacking flair to his game as well. He made a cracking line break, scored a try and showed really good hands in several of their other tries.

Hastings controlled the game really well, even when it was well won and they could easily have started to try and play BaaBaas stuff. Instead they keep the foot to the throat and kept on scoring. He would likely have been MoM if Harris had not been picked.

Chapman now seems to have nailed down the starting spot and of all the promising young Scottish SHs, he is the one racking up the quality game time in the Premiership. He has got a real turn of pace on him and I really would not be surprised to see him as the bolter for the summer tour. He may well have a higher ceiling than Vellacott, whom Toonie does not seem completely sold on.

Davidson was solid from the bench when he came on, but can't quite seem to crack the starting lineup.

No sign of Craig for a while now. He came back from injury but then disappeared again. I don't know if he is injured again or just can't make the team. Glasgow could do worse than him if they are still on the look out for another experienced second row.


Looking forward to see them play Sarries on Friday, which will be an altogether sterner test.

Craig got himself red carded not too long ago so reckon it is a mix of the suspension and other players playing well ahead of him. Who is being dropped to bring him in? I guess he will get rotated in if niggles hit.

According to Rugby Pass, the Chile game is the return of Scotland A.

Great to see Scotland are taking on Chile this summer. I love it when we tour and play lower tiered sides, it's what all the top tier sides should be doing. For example, the RFU could have arranged a pre tour match vs one of the pacific island nations before their three tests vs Australia rather than their Barbarians match at Twickers. Likewise with Ireland being in NZ they could have played one of Samoa, Tonga or Fiji, Wales could have taken on Namibia or Zimbabwe. That is how you grow the game in my opinion.

bsando wrote:Great to see Scotland are taking on Chile this summer. I love it when we tour and play lower tiered sides, it's what all the top tier sides should be doing. For example, the RFU could have arranged a pre tour match vs one of the pacific island nations before their three tests vs Australia rather than their Barbarians match at Twickers. Likewise with Ireland being in NZ they could have played one of Samoa, Tonga or Fiji, Wales could have taken on Namibia or Zimbabwe. That is how you grow the game in my opinion.

I agree with all the above, I think the SRU can hold their heads high when it comes to touring tier 2 nations but this also may actually be a result of the Tier 1 nations not wanting a full series against Scotland because we are a bit meh and wouldnt present a stern enough test before the rugby championship kicks off

bsando wrote:Great to see Scotland are taking on Chile this summer. I love it when we tour and play lower tiered sides, it's what all the top tier sides should be doing. For example, the RFU could have arranged a pre tour match vs one of the pacific island nations before their three tests vs Australia rather than their Barbarians match at Twickers. Likewise with Ireland being in NZ they could have played one of Samoa, Tonga or Fiji, Wales could have taken on Namibia or Zimbabwe. That is how you grow the game in my opinion.

I agree with all the above, I think the SRU can hold their heads high when it comes to touring tier 2 nations but this also may actually be a result of the Tier 1 nations not wanting a full series against Scotland because we are a bit meh and wouldnt present a stern enough test before the rugby championship kicks off

That’s true, had Scotland won more games and been in a similar position as the other home nations who are eligible for these big three match tours of SA, NZ and Aus then perhaps they’d just do the same. I haven’t looked it up for a while but aren’t these tours locked in for a ten year period or something? As in, only certain teams can do the three series tours? I was trying to figure out why Scotland hadn’t toured NZ in over twenty years and I remember it being something to do with rankings and tv rights.

A slightly more introspective interview than usual from Finn Russell in the Times.

He definitely looked washed out this year, hopefully he does get the summer off and re-discover his mojo next season. It definitely looked like it was missing in the 6N this season.



Behind the smile, Finn Russell has been struggling. After spending close to an hour in his company, at the Racing 92 training ground south of Paris, it is clear that the Scotland fly half has been burnt out by a relentless schedule since last summer’s British & Irish Lions tour.

He is still relaxed in Paris, and more refreshed now, having managed to take a short break before Racing 92 host Sale Sharks in the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final tomorrow. But Russell, 29, has felt a great weight upon him.

He is determined to remain true to himself and his style, but all the rugby, all the pressure has made him feel unable to perform consistently. He has started questioning his instincts during matches, concerned about being “slammed” for his natural exuberance. That does not sound like the Russell we think we know.

“I’ve just been slightly drained this year,” he says before his 28th match of the season. “It’s that mental side rather than physically. I’ve had maybe five days holiday this year. It’s not much at all. This season there have been a few things that have run into each other, which probably caught up with me. I’ve never really got back into properly good form.”

Many find the season after British & Irish Lions tours tough. Russell has avoided injury — unlike Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mako Vunipola, Jonny Hill, Taulupe Faletau, Josh Navidi, Sam Simmonds, Justin Tipuric, Owen Farrell, and Anthony Watson — but his workload since South Africa has taken its toll.

Catching Covid, and the pandemic forcing a restructure of the fixture list, scuppered more time off and his five-day break was his first since September last year. He skipped Racing’s Top 14 match against Biarritz on April 23, jetting to Dubai with his girlfriend, the Scottish heptathlete Emma Canning.

Stepping off the treadmill and on to the beach, Russell was finally able to stop his whirring mind and move on from a disappointing end to the Six Nations with Scotland, who finished fourth. Their campaign was also dogged by controversy when Russell was dropped for the Ireland game as punishment for attending an unsanctioned night out in Edinburgh after the win against Italy.


“Going away was probably the best thing for it,” Russell says. “I don’t mind the amount of games. It’s more the mental side, constructing a game plan all week, day off, then do it all again. Doing that 15 games in a row can be tough.

“It’s probably had an effect on how my season has been. It’s been a little bit up and down. I’ll put a bit of pressure on myself as it’s my job to drive the team.”

That’s where the crux of all this lies. Russell is the focal point — for adulation and abuse. He may seem totally carefree, but the opposite is true; to the point where on field he now second-guesses himself when eyeing up one of his wonder-plays.

“I think, ‘What’s the point, if it doesn’t come off I’m just going to get slammed in the media and it’s going to be my fault,’ ” he says. “If I don’t put it on the money, and if we don’t score off it, pretty much, then it’ll be, ‘That’s one of Finn’s one-out-of-tens that come off’ and if it does it’ll be ‘That’s the brilliance of Finn’.

“It’s not just the media, it’s the fans and everything. It’s something over time [I’ve developed]. If something doesn’t come off, all of sudden you’re a risk-taker, a this, a that. Do people actually understand what you’re trying, or what you’ve seen?

“It’s one thing Vern [Cotter] used to say as Scotland coach: ‘I don’t care what you try as long as you have a reason behind it.’ That’s how I play.

“Last weekend, I tried a half cross-field kick and their boy ended up catching it. It was 30 centimetres off us scoring. The reason behind it was good, it was just my execution.

“You can’t really win. When you’re good you get all the praise, and when a couple of things don’t come off the blame falls.”

Scotland’s head coach Gregor Townsend has advised Russell to stay off social media — but even if he does, friends and family send him the criticisms.

Russell hates being labelled as a risk-taker. He cites the moment he unlocked Saracens in 2020’s Heineken Champions Cup semi-final — when he chipped over their defence late on in Paris for the centre Virimi Vakatawa, who found Juan Imhoff for the winning try. Risky? Sure. Calculated? Definitely. Vakatawa called it, Russell, the hero, executed. Racing won 19-15. He then threw two intercepts in the final against Exeter Chiefs, and Racing lost 31-27. The villain.

Russell thinks he was born in the wrong era, and if he were 19, not 29, he would be given more slack. “I’m older than Marcus Smith — I use him and Romain Ntamack as examples,” he says. “Ten years ago I was putting chips over the top and it was seen as risky,” he explains.


“That’s kind of stuck with me. Maybe if I was ten years later it might been seen as great play. Back then, the way the game was, it was seen to be risky, putting cross-kicks or miss-passes in. If I now play a game and don’t do that it’s ‘Finn had a quiet game’, or ‘He tries these and only one in every six comes off’.”

Russell hopes coaches’ perspectives are shifting. “If teams actually want to go out and score they’ve got to be willing to allow their players to express themselves,” he says. “There’s more creativity coming in, more teams are starting to play. It shows coaches are playing to win rather than playing to not lose.”

Ending his week off, Russell attended a Scottish Super 6 semi-professional match between Stirling County and Ayrshire Bulls ten minutes from his parents’ house, watching his brother, Harry, a 32-year-old scrum half.

With all he has said, would Russell prefer to play at that lower level away from the spotlight? He did for Ayr in 2016, when returning from a bad head injury. “When I was at Glasgow, four or five years ago, I drove back and it was pouring down with rain,” he remembers. “One of the lads threw a big lump of mud that stuck to my windshield. I looked at training and thought ‘I don’t think I could ever come back to this.’

“The only way I’d go back is if my two brothers were playing. It might be a bit of fun at the end.”

Townsend was at Bridgehaugh too. He and Russell exchanged a nod, a brief hello, and that was it.

The fly half has not spoken properly to his boss since being dropped for the Ireland match. He was out with best friend Ali Price, captain Stuart Hogg, wing Darcy Graham and centres Sam Johnson and Sione Tuipulotu, celebrating Price winning his 50th cap.


Russell, largely, carried the can. He was benched and Blair Kinghorn wore No 10 in Dublin. He turns bashful when the incident is brought up, shuffling in his chair a little.

“I hadn’t probably been playing at my best, and Blair had been playing well for Edinburgh,” he says. “There’s maybe a bit of a punishment as well as trying Blair in a high-level game — give him a start, let him control the game. He did a great job.”

On the surface Russell looked bang to rights. As a senior player going out drinking during a tournament without the coaches’ consent — especially having walked out of Scotland’s 2020 Six Nations camp after another disagreement with Townsend over alcohol — it left him open to a hammering.

But could players under intense scrutiny be forgiven for wanting to let off steam with their friends in the midst of an eye-watering schedule?

“I probably did find it quite tough this camp, for various reasons,” he explains — this the fourth championship he spent toing and froing between Scotland and Racing.

“When I go back to Scotland, myself Hoggy, Ali and some other boys probably have more focus on us. When I’m here, because I’m Scottish no one really cares. You get the benefits, reservations at restaurants, but there’s not hassle when you’re in there. You just live a normal life. I was happy to get back.”

Russell does not know how things can improve for top players such as him. He requires no sympathy. He chose to go to France, and is paid handsomely for it, but no light at the end of the tunnel is visible.


The big games, which he loves, keep on coming — with Sale at La Défense Arena on Sunday.

“They’re lowering the salary cap rather than putting it up, so what are they expected to do for players?” Russell asks. “You’re still demanding the same hours and input from the players but for less money. Tell me another job where that’s the case?”

Nevertheless, he wants to stay here, sign another contract, and Emma is coming soon to join him in Paris. That will help.

He loves playing for his country, but looks like a man who needs a full summer off — not to step on the treadmill once again for Scotland in Argentina this July.


“I can’t really complain because it’s my choice to be here,” Russell says. “If I wanted extra time off I could go back home and get it.”

But rugby cannot continue to flog its players like this. “Everything is always good with Finn,” says Racing’s media manager as our interview winds down.

It has not been, but Russell remains chipper. Never fear — he will not become a conformist robot.

“I’m quite chilled, as you probably know,” he says. “Whenever I play, I’ll always be smiling and I’ll try things. If it doesn’t come off, it is what it is. I’m still gonna keep trying it.

“There will still be a smile on my face.”

And one with Jack Dempsey in the Times as well. Playing his cards close to his chest about playing for Scotland. Let's hope his mum talks him into it!




As Jane Austen almost said, it is a truth universally acknowledged that an international coach in possession of a crop of good players must be in want of a top-class No 8. Which raises the burning question in Scottish rugby today: has Jack Dempsey taken any calls from Gregor Townsend lately? “Maybe I have or maybe I haven’t,” Dempsey replied. “I don’t know. I can’t really talk about it.”

If this gives the impression that Dempsey is a stranger to candour, it is worth relaying another snatch of conversation with the 28-year-old who won 14 caps for Australia before he upped sticks and moved to Glasgow at the start of this season. No sooner had he arrived than World Rugby announced that a player who had previously played for one country could represent another (with which he had a birth connection) after a 36-month stand-down period. Would Dempsey prefer to play for Scotland, the land of his mother’s birth, or Australia?

“I’ve got my parents coming over in two weeks,” Dempsey began. “My mum is obviously the one who’s on the Scottish side, so I’ll pick her brain about a few different things and what she’s thinking. Because I know my dad doesn’t want me to bloody play for Scotland!”

Dempsey will complete his three-year absence from the international area on October 11 this year and will be eligible for Scotland from that point on. Of course, he will also still be eligible for Australia as well. And with Scotland due to host the Wallabies at Murrayfield on October 29 there is a certain pressure upon Dempsey to decide where his future allegiances lie.

Is he tortured by this dilemma? Not exactly. In fact, he seems more amused by it all. You get the impression that if he is at Murrayfield on October 29 he will be equally happy in a blue shirt as a green and gold shirt — or even just sitting in the stand chugging a beer.

“It kind of depends on what I decide, really,” he shrugged. “When [Australia] came here for the Autumn Tests last year, I went to the game and watched it live — sitting in the crowd having a few Guinness — and that was the first game I’d been to at Murrayfield when I wasn’t part of the squad.

“So, if I’m not playing it will be good because I can go there and have a few more beers in the stand and watch the game, and if I am playing on either team … I don’t know, it will be good either way. I’m not thinking about it too much. I just think it is a good thing to see those two teams play the game here.”

It is certainly a good thing that Dempsey has increased Scotland coach Townsend’s No 8 options ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup. The No 8 is part of the spine of any rugby team and the qualities of whoever plays there go a long way to defining the character of the team as a whole.

Matt Fagerson has been Scotland’s first-choice in the position for the past couple of years, but he is not in the front rank of destructive ball carriers and is arguably more effective on the blindside flank — before his recent injury Fagerson was hugely impressive in that role for Glasgow alongside Dempsey at No 8.

Before hookers began to steal the show with their driving maul scores, No 8s were generally the most effective source of forward tries. England’s Billy Vunipola, Italy’s Sergio Parisse, Taulupe Faletau of Wales and Kieran Read of New Zealand all delivered regularly for their countries. Yet Scottish 8s have been the least productive on the planet. No Scottish No 8 scored a try between Johnnie Beattie’s against Ireland in 2010 and Magnus Bradbury’s against England in 2019. Fagerson has not crossed an international line either. Clearly, there is a need for more dynamism and firepower in the position.

Dempsey will not be eligible for Scotland in time for the summer tour to Argentina so he is one of the few players who can actually be believed when they say they are only focusing on domestic matters for the moment. And he has a lot to focus on as Glasgow’s programme over the next few weeks is not short of massive challenges.

The first of those is Saturday’s European Challenge Cup quarter-final clash with Lyon at the French side’s Matmut Stadium. A tough test at the best of times, but all the tougher for a group of players who only got back from their two-match (and two-defeat) trip to South Africa on Sunday afternoon.

But Dempsey is up for it. “For me, it is a completely new experience,” he said. “You have two competitions running alongside each other and you are jumping on a plane to South Africa for two weeks and then straight back on a plane to France. I’m used to the first bit of that because we used to play in South Africa when I was in Super Rugby, but I’m still getting my head around the France bit of it.

“It’s exciting, isn’t it? Especially if we use the current situation we are in. We’ve had a disappointing two weeks, but we’re able to come back to a different competition and have a mental refresh. This is knock-out rugby, you forget about the league for a bit.”

• Scotland A will play a match against Chile as part of the senior team’s summer tour of South America. The game will take place in Santiago on June 25, seven days before the first of three Tests against Argentina.

Good to hear Finn being open and honest, not so good to hear he's clearly not in the right frame of mind after a long seasons, and is struggling with how he is perceived by media and fans.

It said he's not on social media much but his friend and family send him all the criticism he gets - WTF??

He definitely needs the summer off!

Got to say, as much as I'd like Dempsey playing for us, it would be really feckin weird if he did.

Also, that is truly awful stst about Scotland's try scoring number 8s!

Agree with all of what you say RDW, I’m surprised Aus aren’t looking at Dempsey for the RWC. They have some good 8’s but he’s be a great addition to the squad on his revitalised form.

Russell has a big game vs Sale this weekend, hope they can win. His interview also revealed what a debacle coaches are dealing with as well as the players. The 6N was poor but on reflection the home nations had a lions tour hangover to deal with.

As we all know professional is pretty cynical in the way it treats it's "assets". he reality is always a lot more "Any Given Sunday" than "Little House On The Prairie".
Toonie should be looking at taking a B squad on the summer tour and banning his first 26 or so players from even looking at a rugby ball for a month or so.
But what do I know.

9 years between tries for our no8's!!!!! Even I fell over the try line more often than that.

Finn clearly needs some time off. Whilst Hastings is terrific, we sorely need Russell on top form for the 6 Nations and WC next year.

I'm pretty easy on qualification rules for players who live and play in adopted countries, it's the way of the world, but I fundamentally disagree with players representing two countries in their playing career. Dempsey would walk into the Scotland side, but I don't think he should.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Finn clearly needs some time off. Whilst Hastings is terrific for two or three minutes every third game, we sorely need Russell on top form for the 6 Nations and WC next year.

I'm pretty easy on qualification rules for players who live and play in adopted countries, it's the way of the world, but I fundamentally disagree with players representing two countries in their playing career. Dempsey , like most of his Glasgow teammates would walk into the Scotland side ahead of the motley collection of knitwear models masquerading as rugby players in Luvvietoon, but I don't think he should.

Just warming up for the 21st.

It's not Glasgow players walking into the Scotland side that bothers me, it's Glagsow players walking around the pitch doing hee haw in the jersey that gets my goat.

Speaking of which, how's Al Kellock these days?

The Ruck Inspector is guiding Glasgow onto ever more success.
Seriously though... this season has been a bad one. If DW doesn't start winning hearts and minds on the west coast by persuading the team to , you know, play some rugby now and then I feel there'll be a Night Of The Long Knives at Scotstoun. Whether Big Al wields the blade or has one  between his ribs remains to be seen.

Kellock should just be made a "club ambassador", or some other such nonsense title, and be allowed to regale Weegie fans at Buckfast fuelled after dinner events of all the tackles he missed and rucks he opted out of. I wouldn't let him close to a training field.

Glasgow should try and get Chris Boyd from Saints.

Arundell try vs Toulon was very hoggesque. He’ll probably end up in England squad but the thought of himself and Hogg playing in same backline definitely would be exciting.

bsando wrote:Arundell try vs Toulon was very hoggesque. He’ll probably end up in England squad but the thought of himself and Hogg playing in same backline definitely would be exciting.

Stunning try. We should send Jimbo to his house to talk to him, and explain that he won't leave until Arundell declares for Scotland!

That would do the trick! I’m sure he’d even agree to play for Glasgow

Steady on! The very least we could offer is the chance to play for the finest city in the world (or at least the city with marginally fewer rats).

https://youtu.be/FxZvNVoVxjk

Ooftya!

I'm sure that sort of try is your bread and butter RDW!!