Finn Russell impresses as Scotland star's Bath debut comes a little earlier than planned

Finn Russell’s Bath debut may have come a little earlier than anticipated, but his new club’s head of rugby Johann van Graan was pleased with Scotland fly-half’s performance in the 34-26 victory over Newcastle Falcons at the Recreation Ground.

Russell, Bath’s eye-catching summer signing, came on as a first-half replacement but it was skipper Ben Spencer who was the star of the show with a hat-trick of tries on the opening weekend of the Gallagher Premiership. The home side touched down six times in all, the other tries going to Alfie Barbeary, Cameron Redpath and Will Muir, while Spencer also landed two conversions. Newcastle caused the home side no end of trouble at the breakdown and scored three tries through Matias Orlando, Ben Stevenson and Jamie Blamire.

Reflecting on Russell’s first appearance in a Bath shirt, just a week on from him turning out for Scotland at the World Cup against Ireland, Van Graan said: “It came earlier than he anticipated and we had to adapt, moving Orlando Bailey to inside centre. I thought he was calm – a very solid first performance.”

Van Graan also acknowledged the leadership of Spencer, adding: “I thought he did very well. He was good with his kicking game too, giving us field position and accuracy. It was nice for him to score three tries too. His last try was a very special one, very good skill execution.”

Finn Russell made his debut for Bath on Saturday.

Van Graan continued: “There’s no easy team in this league. It was a tough battle and Newcastle stuck it out. I thought we had some, let’s call them ‘soft moments’, in our own 22 but once we got that ruck set Ben got us up to the half-way line. Not a lot of nines in world rugby can do that. He does it with both feet. It was a good performance, a good start for us."

Elsewhere in the first round of fixtures defending champions Saracens suffered a record defeat in going down 65-10 at Exeter Chiefs and a a last-minute try from replacement Jamal Ford-Robinson saw Gloucester edge a thrilling 29-28 home victory over Harlequins. In the Sunday match, Sale ground out a nervy 20-15 victory over Northampton, while on Friday, Bristol chalked up a 25-14 win over lethargic Leicester at Ashton Gate