'I feel horrible saying it. He's not the same player'

Former Scotland second row Jim Hamilton says that the axing of Finn Russell by Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend ‘feels like the right call’.

News broke at lunchtime that the Scotland talisman had been dropped to the bench for this Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations showdown with Ireland in Dublin.

Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn takes the place of the highly-regarded Racing 92 stand-off, whose performances in this year’s tournament have been the subject of scrutiny from some critics.

Jamie Noon previews the final round of the Six Nations | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 25

Jamie Noon previews the final round of the Six Nations | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 25

The omission of Russell, who is named among the replacements, is particularly notable since head coach Gregor Townsend has made only two changes to the side that started last weekend’s bonus-point victory away to Italy.

“It’s a massive call and in my opinion, it feels like the right call,” Hamilton said while discussing the decision with Leicester flyhalf Freddie Burns in live Q&A on the RugbyPass Youtube channel.

“I feel awful saying that because I love Finn. I love him. I love what he’s done for Scottish rugby. I love his character.

“I feel bad saying it. He’s not been the same player. Maybe it is the rocket up his **** that he needs. It shows that he isn’t ‘not droppable’. There’s one player that is undroppable and that’s Hoggy [Stuart Hogg] at 15.

“With Hoggy you are getting a seven, eight, nine, ten out of ten performance. Every single game. With Finn you’re getting a ten out of ten, or a six out of ten.

“The last few games we’ve been seeing six out of tens.

“We need to know with the Rugby World Cup, that we’ve got another player who can do it [play flyhalf for Scotland].”

Former England flyhalf Burns said he felt for his fellow playmaker: “As a ten, if you’re behind a dominant pack week after week, you can perform well. When you’re not, and the pack is inconsistent around you, it’s hard.

“When you’ve got those maverick tendencies that Finn does and he’s become so central to everything Scotland have done good in the last few years; you play Scotland you go ‘Stop Finn’.

“The Scotland pack is a good pack, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t strike the fear of god in you.

“We’ve seen it in a couple of teams this year. You see Semi Radradra at Bristol this year, it almost seems like ‘lob him the ball and do something’. And when they don’t produce everyone goes ‘he’s terrible. His head’s gone’.

“For Finn it might actually be a good thing. As a player you’re never going to go ‘that’s the right decision’ however, I think it might be the case that in six months or a year down the line that they look back realise that dropping Finn for that last game was a good thing for him and Scotland.”

“I feel for him sometimes. Everyone expects that every time he touches the ball to do something. You can’t do that.”

additional reporting PA