Finn Russell reveals unfinished business, stadium he can't wait to play in, plus Blair Kinghorn rapport and Ben Healy admiration

Finn Russell is set to be involved for Scotland when they take on France at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Gregor Townsend’s side never gave the best of themselves in 2019, losing to Ireland and Japan, and were eliminated at the pool stage for only the second time in the tournament’s history. The opening defeat against the Irish was particularly disappointing and Townsend spoke last week about regrets he had over their preparations for the match. For Russell, the hangover lasted into the following year and there was a falling out with management which caused him to miss the 2020 Six Nations.

Happily, coach and playmaker are back on the same page and Russell acknowledged that he had a score to settle with the World Cup. “For sure,” he said. “There are quite a few of the boys who will be going to this World Cup who were also over in Japan. That was a really frustrating World Cup. We didn’t manage to perform at our best and didn’t get out that group. That led into the next season and we all know what happened then. This group is very different, we’re all having a lot of fun and training really well. The coaching has been very different between now and four years ago which I think is great. I’d say we’re better prepared ahead of this World Cup than the last one, albeit we might have a tougher pool.”

Scotland have been drawn in an ominous-looking Pool B and will open their campaign against holders South Africa in Olympique Marseille’s famous Stade Velodrome on September 10. They will then go to Nice to face a Tonga team bolstered by a number of returning former Wallabies and All Blacks, before heading to Lille to take on Romania. Their final group match pits them against Ireland, the number one team in the world, at the Stade de France on October 7.

Russell is fuelled by disappointing memories of 2019 against Ireland at the World Cup.

Russell, 30, who is expected to play in this Saturday’s warm-up match against France at Murrayfield, is looking forward to his first outing of the season after sitting out last weekend’s win over Italy. Scotland will then travel to Saint-Etienne for a rematch with the World Cup hosts before finishing their preparations at home to Georgia on August 26.

“The next three games will be really important, for me and the team to get back into it,” said Russell who has not played since Racing 92’s French Top 14 semi-final defeat by Toulouse on June 9. “I might play well straight away – I’m not sure – but after that many weeks off it is very different going from training to a Test match against the No 2 team in the world.

“We’ll prepare ourselves over these next few weeks and get ourselves in as good a shape as possible to take on South Africa. We ran them really close a couple of years ago, but they pulled away in the last 15 minutes or so. No one’s talking about Tonga either with the players they’ve got. They’ll all be really tough games. It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to.”

Russell spent five years in Paris with Racing but will start a new chapter next season after signing for Bath. He is looking forward to returning to France for the World Cup and believes his third stab at the tournament – he played in 2015 in England – will be the best yet.

Russell will likely link up with Blair Kinghorn in the back division.

“I’m looking forward to getting back for a bit of sun,” he said. “The following the French team gets for rugby is incredible. It’s one of the best countries in the world for that. I did the 2015 World Cup and the 2019 World Cup. But, for me, I think this could potentially be the best one for us as players. In terms of the atmosphere, the hype around it, it’ll be great. It won’t be like Japan or like England in 2015, when we played in Newcastle and Leeds. The opening game against South Africa in Marseille, that will be massive. I’ve never played at that stadium, but I’ve heard it’s amazing.”

What will also be different about this World Cup for Russell is the absence of Stuart Hogg. The Scotland full-back’s decision to retire came as a shock to all but it opens the door for Blair Kinghorn and Ollie Smith to step up. Russell said he and Kinghorn had been working well together, swapping roles

“It’s obviously different having Blair or Ollie Smith playing there for us,” said the 69-times capped stand-off. “We know Blair can step in and play 10 really well. We’ve interacted really easily and chopped and changed who’s at 10 all the time. So there’s a bit more change there. But the way Blair’s been training at full-back, it’s been really good. He’s been hitting the ball really well. He’s a big guy, really quick, and he’s got a lot of different attributes to Hoggy.”

Ben Healy made his first Scotland start in the win over Italy and it couldn’t have gone much better for the former Ireland Under-20 stand-off who demonstrated a calm head and an outstanding kicking game. Russell was impressed.

“I thought he was really good at the weekend,” he said. “That was his first start and he was ripping spirals into touch. So he looked very comfortable there which is great to see from a young 10. It would have been easy for him to come in and potentially go into his shell but I thought at the weekend he had a great variety of kicks; spirals, up and under, he got a 50:22, his restarts were great and he also did well with the ball in hand in tough conditions.

"People watching the game probably didn’t appreciate how tough it was with those greasy conditions and Ben still had a lovely touch. Unfortunately for me it makes it a bit tougher! But it’s good fun and having that challenge is what we all want in rugby. You want to be getting pushed by other players so it’s good to have more competition in camp.”