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Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell explains what happened with Owen Farrell on the field
Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell has explained what happened with Owen Farrell during the on-field scuffle in the first half of the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham.
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After a strong tackle by Farrell dislodged the ball from Russell, an end-of-field camera then picked up the Russell make a b-line for Farrell during Van der Merwe’s try which occurred moments later.
Russell came from behind and shoulder bumps into an unwitting Farrell, who was surprised by the Scotland flyhalf. Russell was seen giving him a spray as Van der Merwe went over to score.
The Scotland No 10 explained why he went after his English rival on RugbyPass The Offload podcast.
“Faz [Farrell] had just banged me and I had lost the ball,” Russell told The Offload.
“Then they kicked it long and I was on the ground. I thought it was Faz but it was actually Marcus [Smith] or [Joe] Marchant that were mouthing off at me on the ground.
“As soon as Duhan went through I saw Faz and I went straight to him to give him a mouthful back.
“I just said ‘what you say now?’ kinda thing ‘anything else to say?’ cause obviously you’ve been mouthing off to me and Duhan’s run it back 60 metres. It wasn’t that much.”
Russell’s return spray left Farrell confused as the England captain professed to have no idea about mouthing off, with Russell then realising he had the wrong target.
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The Scotland flyhalf admitted to apologising during the after-match after going after the wrong man.
“Well Faz just said ‘I didn’t say anything, what are you on about’, I don’t think it was actually him who was mouthing off,” Russell laughed.
“So after the game I was like sorry yeah that was a bit of s*** chat.”
“I had my face into the ground so I assumed it was him but I don’t think it actually was.”
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