Finn Russell wants Scotland to find their voices in the absence of their chatty leader
Finn Russell has urged Scotland’s senior players to stand up and be counted as they embark on their latest Six Nations campaign against opponents he dubbed the strongest Italian side he has encountered.
With skipper Sione Tuipulotu ruled out by injury, Russell and Rory Darge have taken over as co-captains but the stand-off wants others in the team to make their voices heard.
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Hide AdHe points to the success of Glasgow Warriors last season in winning the United Rugby Championship and Blair Kinghorn’s double triumph with Toulouse as helping imbue the squad with more confidence. Russell himself helped Bath to the Premiership final last year and the club are currently top of the league. It has helped foster a winning mentality and he now wants experienced Scotland campaigners such as Kinghorn and Glasgow’s Huw Jones to tap into this and help fill the void left by Tuipulotu, whose place at inside centre is taken by Stafford McDowall.


“We spoke about that through the week,” said Russell. “Sione's one that chats a lot and helps out with decision-making but Shuggy [Jones] has got over 50 caps, so we're saying we need to get the likes of him and Blair into the game, get them talking more, get them being decision-makers and communicators instead of just being ball players and strike runners. Let's get more from them, let's get them talking more to us.
“Staff's great at that, he chats a lot which is really good, but again I think the more we can get from the experienced players the better it is.
“And that kind of goes back to what I was chatting about earlier with the likes of Blair. He's won a double with Toulouse - what are you doing at Toulouse to get these outcomes? When you get these situations, what do you boys look for? Teams are different obviously but it's trying to pull on all these different experiences to get the best outcome on the weekend.”
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Tuipulotu will miss the entire tournament but he visited the squad this week and was involved in meetings ahead of Saturday’s match against Italy at Murrayfield. Memories of last season’s defeat in Rome are still fresh and Russell rates the current Italian side the best he has come across in his decade-plus of playing in the Six Nations.
“Over the past few years Italy have always had something different, something up their sleeves, so it's going to be interesting to see if they have something for tomorrow and how we adapt to that,” said Russell. “But for me, it's the best, strongest Italian team that I've faced.”
Sebastian Negri, Italy’s experienced forward, didn’t disagree with Russell’s assessment. “I feel like we're in a really good cycle at the moment,” said Negri. “Obviously, we've been through ups and downs as a team. But I feel like this is a really good Italian team to be a part of. But we've also got to embrace that. I think we can't shy away from that.”
The Benetton flanker expects a Scotland backlash after last year’s result.
“We know Scotland will be hurting from that,” he said. “We know they've talked about putting things right and a bit of revenge, I guess. So we've got to expect that.”
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