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Bath move revitalising Finn Russell as he plots Scotland’s Six Nations strategy

By PA
(Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Finn Russell insisted he had been revitalised by his move to Bath as he plots Scotland’s attacking strategy for the Six Nations with Gregor Townsend.

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Russell helped Bath qualify for the knockout phase of the Investec Champions Cup by directing a 29-25 victory over Top 14 leaders Racing 92 on Sunday, their third win in as many group matches.

The 31-year-old Scot left the Parisians for the Recreation Ground over the summer and the change of scenery has been an unqualified success, with his new club enjoying a revival in the Gallagher Premiership and Europe.

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He hopes to enter the Six Nations with the same brio and has been in frequent contact with Scotland head coach Townsend ahead of the opener against Wales on February 3.

“Coming and changing teams with Bath has given me, not a new lease of life, but it has energised me,” Russell said.

“It has been a new challenge and I’ve worked with new players in a slightly different structure and with a new gameplan, which has been good fun.

“I have grown again since I have been here. It is good for me as a 10, the more experience I get, the better.

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“I have spoken to Gregor quite a lot. He texted me on Saturday and every week we have been chatting.

“I have got a call with him on Monday to chat about a few options with the attack through the Six Nations.”

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While the move to Bath has put a spring in Russell’s step and provided the Premiership with a new poster boy, it also helped the fly-half come to terms with Scotland’s recent group exit from the World Cup.

“Physically I was all right. I played three games out of four at the World Cup but every game I had a week off after so physically I was fine,” he said.

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“It was more disappointment. I wanted to get straight back in here so I almost didn’t have time to dwell on what had happened.

“I took a week off, three or four weeks after I came back in, got away and had a proper holiday and switched off a bit, but coming back in here and getting something fresh has been really good to get over it.

“Potentially, if I had stayed at Racing I would have gone back there and it would have been the same again and dwelling on the World Cup.

“Coming into a new team with new coaches and a new environment and starting from scratch helped me get over that World Cup.”

Russell’s immediate assignment is Bath’s trip to Toulouse on Sunday with the winners finishing top of Pool 2 and guaranteed home advantage in the round of 16.

“Toulouse will be really tough but we are going there to try and win that game. They have got 40 points every game so it’s going to be a challenge, but we have got the confidence and belief to go and do that,” Russell added.

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J
JW 23 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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