THE game is just a few minutes old when England fly-half George Ford sends his first high kick steepling into the sky above Twickenham.

He begins the chase, and as the ball falls to earth it is clear that the contest for possession will be with Finn Russell, the Scotland No.10. Ford sprints on, but what is Russell going to do?

The Scot considers the scenario for a moment. "I think I would probably just run the other way," he suggests.

It's not a course of action that will earn him any medals for valour, but you can understand Russell's point of view. And his self-deprecating laughter. A moment of clumsiness in the same situation against Wales a few weeks ago led to an ugly collision with Dan Biggar, an immediate yellow card, a citing and then a two-week ban. Oh, there was also an appeal, summarily rejected.

So you could say that Russell has been through the mill since he last played for his country. But as the ban basically ruled him out of the Italy game that followed, and one of the most disheartening results of these recent barren years, you could also say that the Six Nations discipline wonks actually did young Russell a favour. They certainly denied him the frustration his Scotland squad confreres suffered when Italy clinched victory in the last play of the match.

Or did they? Players all react differently when they are forced to sit out a game, but Russell didn't fancy sitting in the Murrayfield stand so he simply headed for his living room and reverted to being the armchair fan he used to be. And, for that matter, the armchair critic and armchair coach. You get the feeling that he was only marginally less involved than he would have been on the field.

You also get the feeling that he wouldn't have been relaxing company as well. "It was pretty frustrating because watching it on telly you see a lot of things that you don't see on the pitch," he explains. "So I'm saying, 'do this and do that', but on the pitch the players don't see everything that's going on. It's easy for me sitting back watching it on tv; it's harder when you're out there."

According to Russell, no items of furniture or domestic pets were harmed during this experience, but he admits the volume levels went up a few times. "Sometimes," he says sheepishly. "Not too much, I wasn't shouting too much. I was more just saying things like, 'why don't they do this or why don't they do that'."

Or, 'why don't they find touch with a penalty with just five minutes left?'. The failure of Peter Horne, who was filling Russell's No.10 shirt that day, to do just that led directly to Italy's winning try. Russell was always likely to step back into the breach after serving his time, but that moment - which came, maddeningly, at the end of a pretty impressive all-round display by Horne - pretty much clinched it.

So now he's off to Twickenham. Graveyard of Scottish hopes and dreams so many times, but just another notch on the bedpost of Russell's burgeoning career. A stratospheric 12 months has seen the 22-year-old rocket from club rugby with Ayr to being Scotland's first-choice playmaker for the Six Nations, cementing himself into that slot more firmly than any player since the era of John Rutherford, Craig Chalmers and Gregor Townsend.

Ironically, for a player who has twice been yellow-carded for reckless challenges this season (he was also sin-binned against Toulouse in December) it is Russell's composure that has been most impressive. Handed the responsibility he now carries, most of us would struggle to control our bladders let alone our nerves, but the Glasgow Warrior has an outlook that is almost serene.

So no pre-Twickers anxieties then? No panic about playing in front of those three-tiered stands packed with braying Home Counties hooray-henry types? None that you would notice. "I've never played there before, I don't think I have ever been there before," he shrugs. "It's just another game for me, just another game.

"I think we can shut out the crowd by how we play. It's like in France, where the crowd never got into it too much because we never let France score. I think if we manage to do that down there it will be similar.

"Scotland against England is one of these games that you look forward to and it will be a different experience. But, again, it's just another game and you just play how you ought to play it. Hopefully we'll get a result."

Of course, the Scots have been travelling hopefully for 32 years without getting a result, but there is an irrepressible optimism about Russell. He has faced up to Ford twice already this season in Glasgow's two European Champions Cup clashes with Bath, and most observers considered he had the better of that game-within-a-game both times.

Russell says: "Because I have played against him so I kind of know what he looks to do, as he probably does with me. At under 20s level he was the number 10 for England, so I have seen him play quite a bit. I don't know him, but I spoke to him briefly after the Bath game down there. He's another young 10 who is making his mark and establishing himself with England and he is a quality player."

Russell admits that the experience and understanding of Greig Laidlaw, who played a handful of Tests at fly-half, is a comfort. So, too, is the presence of his club colleagues Mark Bennett and Alex Dunbar, making up a Warriors trio of midfield musketeers that has been honed by friendship off the pitch.

"When it comes to playing you understand each other, you are closer to each other," he says. "In defence and attack, you have an idea of what others are going to do before they actually do it. You feed off them without having to call anything or do anything."