Finn Russell reveals Scotland's Six Nations target with two games remaining and makes demand of team

Co-captain wants squad to finish Six Nations with a flourish by beating Wales and France

Finn Russell insists Scotland are still targeting their highest ever finish in the Six Nations despite going into Saturday’s match against Wales on the back of successive defeats.

Gregor Townsend’s side sit fourth in the table after three rounds of fixtures, with the match against Italy on the opening weekend providing their only win. The Scots lost to Ireland in round two then were pipped by England at Twickenham a fortnight ago in the most agonising fashion when Russell missed a last-gasp conversion for victory.

They take on a resurgent Welsh side at Murrayfield before ending their campaign against France in Paris next week. Title hopes are all but gone but Russell, the co-captain, is backing his team to win both matches and finish second or third. Scotland have never finished in the top two since the championship was expanded to include Italy in 2000.

Scotland's Finn Russell speaks to the media ahead of the Six Nations match against Wales at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. | PA

“For us, we're thinking if we can win this weekend and go over to France and manage to win in Paris then we look at potentially finishing second or third which is good for us,” said Russell. “We've never finished second yet so we're trying to get up to that sort of position.

“But for them, they're probably looking at where they've been and how high they can finish on the table. If they can win the next two games that will probably be a decent tournament for them in terms of how they came into it and what their expectations were from everyone else outside their camp.

“I think there's a lot on the line for both teams and I think it's going to be a tough game because of that.”

This is Russell’s 11th Six Nations campaign and the stand-off admitted it was frustrating to see another title challenge fizzle out on the back of a narrow defeat. The Scots outscored England by three tries to one but still lost 16-15 and Russell likened it to last season’s 20-16 home defeat by France when Scotland thought they had scored a last-minute try only for the referee and TMO to decide the ball hadn’t been grounded.

Finn Russell is a picture of frustration after Scotland's 16-15 loss to England at the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham. | PA

“I look at last year when we weren't given that try against France. That put us out of title contention and then against England the other week… it's such small margins at this level,” said Russell.

“As a team, we need to get better. It sounds simple, doesn't it? When we do get chances, we need to take them and have that ruthless edge that a lot of people talk about. A lot of teams talk about it, but it's tough to actually do. Looking back at the England game, we're looking at what we could have done differently.

“As a team, we're growing and developing. We come into every tournament hoping we're going to win it. But we do need to learn and get better from these games. It's not an easy thing to do. I've been here quite a few times now and it's the same kind of story. It's tough.

“The best thing we can do is have a good game this weekend against Wales, hopefully get the result, then go to France and hopefully get the result over there.

“I know it's tough that we can't win the tournament now, but we've still got to finish on a high leading into the summer.”

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