The delicate balance between playing enough rugby to prepare for the Test arena and over-doing it was examined in some detail yesterday as Gregor Townsend named his side for tomorrow’s meeting with France with the absence from the line-up of both of the stand offs who started for Scotland in the autumn at the heart of the discussion.

Somehow, it almost felt as if there was an inevitability to the injury suffered by French-based Finn Russell, in his third successive top-level clash when Racing 92 met Toulouse in the first Six Nations fallow week. Ironically, though, in the case of home-based Adam Hastings, he would, in the head coach’s words: “have been in a better position for selection if he had played more rugby over the last month.”

Townsend noted that that if Scottish rugby cannot come up with the counter-offer to prevent a club like Racing 92 from recruiting players like Russell on salaries that mean they will want to see them in action as often as possible, there is no choice but to accept that in more senses than one it is a hostage to fortune for the national side who must simply hope that they see resting him as being in their own longer term interests.

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“When they’ve signed a player they’ve signed him for all the games outwith the international window that he’s available for and ultimately it’s their choice,” he said. “If they feel they need to play him they understand the risks that you play two Test matches, then an intense club game, then a Test match and whether he’s going to play between rounds three and four who knows, but it was going to be seven weeks of high intensity rugby and it’s their choice.”

Hastings’ case, however, could be considered something of a self-inflicted injury in terms of the Scottish game, albeit Townsend accepted that it is mitigated by the fact that he can now turn to the man preferred to him at Glasgow Warriors.

“Obviously he’s competing against Peter Horne so a lot of that will be down to him, to make sure he’s playing well enough to be selected,” Townsend noted. “What we were looking at this week if Finn had come through was Adam being released this weekend to get another game under his belt. I felt he played well against Saracens and was a key part of a lot of that first half performance Glasgow put in, but since then he obviously hasn’t had the gametime. We still believe he has a big role to play off the bench.”

That Glasgow selection last week reflected their head coach Dave Rennie’s confidence in his own observations that have also seen him regularly prefer Nick Grigg to the man he is replacing in the Scotland team, Huw Jones.

Horne also brings the added value of a long-time understanding of what is required in the international game, however, as Townsend acknowledged.

“He’s probably our most organised and best prepared player. He’ll know everything about the French, what they’ve been doing, their individual players, he’ll be able to talk through our gameplan in minute detail. That’s a huge asset when you’re playing at 12 to help a 10 out in his game, and that’s what he’s shown when he’s played outside of Finn over the last few years. Bringing that experience and knowledge to 10 will, I believe, be important this week.”

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As the player who is closest in style to the absent Russell, however, Hastings could make a telling difference at some stage.

“I felt he (Hastings) came off the bench last Saturday night and was positive and pro-active. That’s the role we expect him to play against France on Saturday,” Townsend said of Hastings’ performance for Glasgow in their win at Cardiff.

“With him and Ali (Price, the replacement scrum-half) together, they bring an energy and an attacking mindset that we might need on Saturday afternoon.”

All of which stands in striking contrast to the recall of Magnus Bradbury, who returns to the Scotland starting line-up on the back of just a single appearance last weekend, after more than four months out.

That, though, reflects something of a crisis in the back-row that has seen Ryan Wilson follow Hamish Watson and John Barclay, his colleagues in the last four of Scotland’s Six Nations matches last season, in succumbing to injury.

“Obviously there are different circumstances in the back row with Ryan Wilson being out injured and that position being up for grabs,” said Townsend. “Playing last weekend had helped Magnus and has helped Peter Horne. That’s probably been one of the factors in terms of why those two are starting.”

Having named his side two days after France’s was revealed, Townsend meanwhile expressed confidence in Grigg’s capacity to use his low-tackling ability to cut down to size a direct opponent, Mathieu Bastareaud, who is four inches taller than him and outweighs him by close to five stones.

“Obviously Bastareaud’s strength is a bit more aligned to his weight, whereas Nick’s strength is really about that power he shows to bounce off tackles, to really put his shoulder into tackles and drive people through. It shows that rugby’s a game for all sizes,” he said.”There’s more than one way to get behind a defence . Nick has shown that time and time again for Glasgow. He played very well in our summer Test against Argentina and now has the opportunity to make sure he plays right throughout the Six Nations after Saturday.