Behind the smile, Finn Russell has been struggling. After spending close to an hour in his company, at the Racing 92 training ground south of Paris, it is clear that the Scotland fly half has been burnt out by a relentless schedule since last summer’s British & Irish Lions tour.
He is still relaxed in Paris, and more refreshed now, having managed to take a short break before Racing 92 host Sale Sharks in the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final tomorrow. But Russell, 29, has felt a great weight upon him.
He is determined to remain true to himself and his style, but all the rugby, all the pressure has made him feel unable to perform consistently. He has started questioning his instincts during matches, concerned about being “slammed” for his natural exuberance. That does not sound like the Russell we think we know.
“I’ve just been slightly drained this year,” he says before his 28th match of the season. “It’s that mental side rather than physically. I’ve had maybe five days holiday this year. It’s not much at all. This season there have been a few things that have run into each other, which probably caught up with me. I’ve never really got back into properly good form.”
Many find the season after British & Irish Lions tours tough. Russell has avoided injury — unlike Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mako Vunipola, Jonny Hill, Taulupe Faletau, Josh Navidi, Sam Simmonds, Justin Tipuric, Owen Farrell, and Anthony Watson — but his workload since South Africa has taken its toll.
Catching Covid, and the pandemic forcing a restructure of the fixture list, scuppered more time off and his five-day break was his first since September last year. He skipped Racing’s Top 14 match against Biarritz on April 23, jetting to Dubai with his girlfriend, the Scottish heptathlete Emma Canning.
Stepping off the treadmill and on to the beach, Russell was finally able to stop his whirring mind and move on from a disappointing end to the Six Nations with Scotland, who finished fourth. Their campaign was also dogged by controversy when Russell was dropped for the Ireland game as punishment for attending an unsanctioned night out in Edinburgh after the win against Italy.
The fly half has helped Racing 92, his French club side, reach the Champions Cup quarter-finals
The fly half has helped Racing 92, his French club side, reach the Champions Cup quarter-finals
“Going away was probably the best thing for it,” Russell says. “I don’t mind the amount of games. It’s more the mental side, constructing a game plan all week, day off, then do it all again. Doing that 15 games in a row can be tough.
“It’s probably had an effect on how my season has been. It’s been a little bit up and down. I’ll put a bit of pressure on myself as it’s my job to drive the team.”
That’s where the crux of all this lies. Russell is the focal point — for adulation and abuse. He may seem totally carefree, but the opposite is true; to the point where on field he now second-guesses himself when eyeing up one of his wonder-plays.
“I think, ‘What’s the point, if it doesn’t come off I’m just going to get slammed in the media and it’s going to be my fault,’ ” he says. “If I don’t put it on the money, and if we don’t score off it, pretty much, then it’ll be, ‘That’s one of Finn’s one-out-of-tens that come off’ and if it does it’ll be ‘That’s the brilliance of Finn’.
“It’s not just the media, it’s the fans and everything. It’s something over time [I’ve developed]. If something doesn’t come off, all of sudden you’re a risk-taker, a this, a that. Do people actually understand what you’re trying, or what you’ve seen?
Scotland endured a disappointing Six Nations Championship, finishing fourth
“It’s one thing Vern [Cotter] used to say as Scotland coach: ‘I don’t care what you try as long as you have a reason behind it.’ That’s how I play.
“Last weekend, I tried a half cross-field kick and their boy ended up catching it. It was 30 centimetres off us scoring. The reason behind it was good, it was just my execution.
“You can’t really win. When you’re good you get all the praise, and when a couple of things don’t come off the blame falls.”
Scotland’s head coach Gregor Townsend has advised Russell to stay off social media — but even if he does, friends and family send him the criticisms.
Russell hates being labelled as a risk-taker. He cites the moment he unlocked Saracens in 2020’s Heineken Champions Cup semi-final — when he chipped over their defence late on in Paris for the centre Virimi Vakatawa, who found Juan Imhoff for the winning try. Risky? Sure. Calculated? Definitely. Vakatawa called it, Russell, the hero, executed. Racing won 19-15. He then threw two intercepts in the final against Exeter Chiefs, and Racing lost 31-27. The villain.
Russell thinks he was born in the wrong era, and if he were 19, not 29, he would be given more slack. “I’m older than Marcus Smith — I use him and Romain Ntamack as examples,” he says. “Ten years ago I was putting chips over the top and it was seen as risky,” he explains.
Russell doesn’t understand why rugby stars are being asked to play more but earn less, via a salary cap
“That’s kind of stuck with me. Maybe if I was ten years later it might been seen as great play. Back then, the way the game was, it was seen to be risky, putting cross-kicks or miss-passes in. If I now play a game and don’t do that it’s ‘Finn had a quiet game’, or ‘He tries these and only one in every six comes off’.”
Russell hopes coaches’ perspectives are shifting. “If teams actually want to go out and score they’ve got to be willing to allow their players to express themselves,” he says. “There’s more creativity coming in, more teams are starting to play. It shows coaches are playing to win rather than playing to not lose.”
Ending his week off, Russell attended a Scottish Super 6 semi-professional match between Stirling County and Ayrshire Bulls ten minutes from his parents’ house, watching his brother, Harry, a 32-year-old scrum half.
With all he has said, would Russell prefer to play at that lower level away from the spotlight? He did for Ayr in 2016, when returning from a bad head injury. “When I was at Glasgow, four or five years ago, I drove back and it was pouring down with rain,” he remembers. “One of the lads threw a big lump of mud that stuck to my windshield. I looked at training and thought ‘I don’t think I could ever come back to this.’
“The only way I’d go back is if my two brothers were playing. It might be a bit of fun at the end.”
Townsend was at Bridgehaugh too. He and Russell exchanged a nod, a brief hello, and that was it.
The fly half has not spoken properly to his boss since being dropped for the Ireland match. He was out with best friend Ali Price, captain Stuart Hogg, wing Darcy Graham and centres Sam Johnson and Sione Tuipulotu, celebrating Price winning his 50th cap.
Russell has spent four years in France, having joined Racing from Glasgow in 2018, and says he wants to sign a new deal
Russell, largely, carried the can. He was benched and Blair Kinghorn wore No 10 in Dublin. He turns bashful when the incident is brought up, shuffling in his chair a little.
“I hadn’t probably been playing at my best, and Blair had been playing well for Edinburgh,” he says. “There’s maybe a bit of a punishment as well as trying Blair in a high-level game — give him a start, let him control the game. He did a great job.”
On the surface Russell looked bang to rights. As a senior player going out drinking during a tournament without the coaches’ consent — especially having walked out of Scotland’s 2020 Six Nations camp after another disagreement with Townsend over alcohol — it left him open to a hammering.
But could players under intense scrutiny be forgiven for wanting to let off steam with their friends in the midst of an eye-watering schedule?
“I probably did find it quite tough this camp, for various reasons,” he explains — this the fourth championship he spent toing and froing between Scotland and Racing.
“When I go back to Scotland, myself Hoggy, Ali and some other boys probably have more focus on us. When I’m here, because I’m Scottish no one really cares. You get the benefits, reservations at restaurants, but there’s not hassle when you’re in there. You just live a normal life. I was happy to get back.”
Russell does not know how things can improve for top players such as him. He requires no sympathy. He chose to go to France, and is paid handsomely for it, but no light at the end of the tunnel is visible.
The big games, which he loves, keep on coming — with Sale at La Défense Arena on Sunday.
“They’re lowering the salary cap rather than putting it up, so what are they expected to do for players?” Russell asks. “You’re still demanding the same hours and input from the players but for less money. Tell me another job where that’s the case?”
Nevertheless, he wants to stay here, sign another contract, and Emma is coming soon to join him in Paris. That will help.
He loves playing for his country, but looks like a man who needs a full summer off — not to step on the treadmill once again for Scotland in Argentina this July.
“I can’t really complain because it’s my choice to be here,” Russell says. “If I wanted extra time off I could go back home and get it.”
But rugby cannot continue to flog its players like this. “Everything is always good with Finn,” says Racing’s media manager as our interview winds down.
It has not been, but Russell remains chipper. Never fear — he will not become a conformist robot.
“I’m quite chilled, as you probably know,” he says. “Whenever I play, I’ll always be smiling and I’ll try things. If it doesn’t come off, it is what it is. I’m still gonna keep trying it.
“There will still be a smile on my face.”
