AS crazy blow-outs by out-of-control sporting stars go, the events leading up to Finn Russell’s exit/expulsion from Scotland’s Six Nations training camp this past week falls some way short of the mark required to reach legendary status.

The stand-off came off the Allianz Park pitch in North London at around 3.30pm last Sunday afternoon after being on the wrong end of the scoreline in a huge Champions Cup clash between Racing 92 and Saracens, travelled all the way to Scotland, reached the national team’s hotel in west Edinburgh, allegedly fell out with fellow members of the senior players’ group and head coach Gregor Townsend about his desire to have a drink in the hotel bar, then got picked up by his mum and dad to be taken home no later than 11pm that same night.

We don’t know how much he drank during that whole period, but we can safely assume that he was not giving the likes of George Best, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins or pretty much any international rugby player pre the turn of the century a run for their money.

This is not to say that Russell is blameless in the whole fiasco. He should have read the room. He should have swallowed his pride, frustration and whatever else he was feeling when told that his post-match wind-down had to stop earlier than he had anticipated because a blanket ban on alcohol was being enforced. He should have gone to bed and tried to deal with whatever grievance he had in the morning.

But surely the fact that he chose to drink alone in the bar [as was leaked on Thursday evening] rather than take the advice of his team-mates to knock it on the head, and then chose to go home to his parents’ house instead of staying in camp with the team he has been at the heart of without any known disciplinary incidents since making his debut in 2014, doesn’t look like an ego running out of control – rather of a young man (who is 27 and has lived a pretty sheltered life as one of the world’s most high profile professional rugby players) feeling exhausted, isolated and perhaps a bit lost.

Take a moment, remove yourself from the emotion of the situation, and ask yourself: Is this the behaviour of an arrogant hotshot who thinks he is too big for the team? Or is it the naïve response of somebody who is struggling to cope with a difficult situation related to a clash of personalities with his head coach?

Social media has gone wild over this story, with opinions split pretty much right down the middle as to whether Townsend is culpable for a failure in man-management, or Russell is to blame for thinking he is too big for the team.

Neither analysis rings true. It is far more complicated than that. But one thing is for sure, to cut Russell adrift would be catastrophic to Scottish rugby because he is an irreplaceable talent in a country not overly blessed with natural playing resources. More importantly, it would be an abdication of the fundamental values of the sport.

#AsOne – the preferred hashtag of Scottish Rugby – needs to be something more than just a catchy slogan to help sell tickets and replica shirts.