The ongoing uproar over mercurial fly-half Finn Russell’s omission from Scotland’s Test squad is not having an adverse impact on their Autumn Nations Series campaign.
That was the word from the team’s forwards coach John Dalziel after Scotland boss Gregor Townsend opted to leave Russell out of his 40-man squad for their Tests against Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina at Murrayfield.
Townsend said “form and consistency” was the reason for Russell‘s omission ahead of their narrow 16-15 defeat to the Wallabies on Saturday.
In fine form
However, the 30-year-old has shone for his club, Racing 92, in their last two games and former Scotland captain John Barclay feels that “external noise” around Russell is “adding to the pressure building” on Townsend and his team.
“Nothing internally,” said Dalziel. “There’s a lot of pressure that goes with international rugby the whole time.
“Certainly playing at home there’s huge pressure on us. We want to win, we want to impress the support we get that fills the stadium time after time.
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“We’re very happy, we know the areas to improve and we have another three games at home. (Losing to) Australia hurts, it could have gone either way at the end there, but the pressure comes with the job. None of it has affected the lads, we’re focused, we have a good culture in the squad, and we’re ready to bounce back this weekend.”
Dalziel admitted that the Scottish public would like to see Russell back in the squad and he paid lip service to the player’s superb form in recent weeks but did not indicate that he would be recalled.
“I know Gregor and Finn speak regularly,” he said. “They had a good conversation around the make-up of the squad and the reasoning for the original squad.
“It’s great to see the last two weekends, he’s played so well. He’s reacted in exactly the right manner.”
Russell’s absence has put extra pressure on Blair Kinghorn who has replaced him as the first choice fly-half. Kinghorn had a good game on Saturday – as he scored a great try – but he missed a last-gasp penalty which ultimately cost Scotland the match.
“Blair’s an excellent professional,” said Dalziel. “He works harder than anyone.
Plenty of positives
“In terms of the last moment of the game, that’s what you leave with but in terms of the rest of the game there were a lot of other areas in the game that affected a lot of things.
“Blair’s bounced right back, he knew straight away what he needed to do technically better with the kick, and he’s been working on that with Chris Paterson as he does every day.
“He’s a really resilient kid, he’s had big moments and we’ve seen he’s capable of those with the try. He repeats that on a regular basis. He’s always a bit of a livewire around the place.”