BOTH Scotland and Glasgow were involved in a number of close matches last season, the crucial difference being that the Warriors were often able to end up on the right side of the result, while the national team suffered a series of narrow losses. Having played for both teams, Finn Russell hopes that the experience will stand him - and therefore Scotland too - in good stead as he looks ahead to the Rugby World Cup.
With six weeks of preparation behind him and a brief break to come next week before the first of four warm-up matches, Russell is itching to play again. Only then, the stand-off thinks, will he and his colleagues have an accurate idea of how much they have improved since the disappointment of the Six Nations, when they lost all five games - three of them by a single-figure margin.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into the games,” he said. “You can simulate games with contact and touch and 15 on 15, but none of that is like a game, is it? A game’s so different. You can prepare for a game, but you never know what’s going to happen.
“It has been tough, especially in France - there was a lot of mental strength needed over there, and the altitude was tough. But we’ve done all the hard stuff now. This is the last bit and we need to keep it going.
“So I’m looking forward to getting back in and seeing what the challenges are when you get back into the games. In the warm-ups we’re taking on three teams we got beaten by in the Six Nations, so I’m looking forward to seeing how much we’ve got better between the Six Nations and now.”
This time last year Russell had only played a handful of games for Glasgow as well as for Scotland, but he learned a lot over the course of the PRO12 campaign. In the semi-final against Ulster his late conversion gave his team a two-point win after they had been behind for most of the game, and he also played a vital role in the final, in which Glasgow enjoyed a comprehensive win over Munster.
“I learned a lot last season,” he continued. “One game stands out against Ulster over there and they beat us. We played well, it was my first start since shoulder injury, and I picked up a lot.
“As a young player getting 20-25 more games under my belt, I learned loads from every match I played. From a year ago to now at Glasgow we worked out a way to grind out wins sometimes. I’m looking for me and some of the other Glasgow boys to bring that into this Scotland team.”
Ireland are first up in the middle of next month, followed by home-and-away games against Italy before the warm-ups end with a game in Paris in early September. It would be understandable if all of the squad, after training so long without a match, wanted to be involved in all four games. But Russell, for all that he is more central to Vern Cotter’s plans than the bulk of the coach’s squad, knows that there could be a lot of changes during the quartet of games.
“Everybody would love to play in all four, but at the same time if you are going to go to the World Cup having played four matches the month before it, you would then have another four pool matches. That would be tough, but I don’t think anyone will be going into the warm-ups saying ‘I don’t want to play’ because you might only get a shot at the World Cup once and you want to show what you can do. It will all come down to the management of the players, and we’ll see how Vern and the strength-and-conditioning guys want to manage things.”
Although Russell seems by some distance to be Cotter’s first choice for the No 10 jersey, the player himself is taking nothing for granted. Especially with Duncan Weir and Ruaridh Jackson fit again, he expects some stiff competition to get into the team.
“I guess it was mine in the Six Nations, but it’s the World Cup now and a different competition. It’s almost back to a blank slate and everyone’s gunning for it. You’ve just got to go out and train as well as you can. The best man will get the jersey, so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh have confirmed that they will play Romania and Ulster in their two pre-season warm-up matches. The game against Romania will be at the Greenyards on Friday 21 August, kicking off at 6.30pm, while the Ulster match will be the following Friday at Goldenacre, also at 6.30pm.
The Romanians, 17th in the world rankings, will use the match as part of their preparations for the World Cup, in which they will face France, Ireland, Italy and Canada in Pool D. Tickets for both games are on sale now, although season-ticket holders will be able to attend the Ulster fixture as part of their package.
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