“If another stonemason had told me 10 years ago I’d now be playing rugby and living in Paris I would have thought: ‘No chance,’” Finn Russell says with amusement as he reflects on how his life has changed since early 2011.
Racing 92’s brilliant fly-half will be vital to Scotland’s hopes of beating England again on Saturday in their opening match of the Six Nations – but 10 years ago he was playing for Falkirk in the second flight of Scottish domestic rugby while working as an apprentice stonemason.
Russell is now feted as one of the most gifted playmakers in the world. After years of rugby being dominated by kicking metrics, robotic gameplans and grim attrition, he is at the heart of a much more attractive and imaginative attacking vision. The 29-year-old hopes to inspire Scotland to the Six Nations title while also leading Racing to their first Champions Cup triumph after losing three finals in the past six years.
But Russell had to move from his hometown club, Stirling County, before the 2011-12 season because he could not break into their first team. At the age of 19 he dropped down a division so that he could play on a regular basis.
“I went to Falkirk to give it a last crack at making a professional career,” Russell says. “I knew that if I didn’t do anything at Falkirk I was just going to be playing rugby for a hobby and working as a stonemason. I wouldn’t say I was concerned because I was accepting of being a stonemason. My best mate was there and I was happy enough with a normal life.”
Did Falkirk work out immediately they had found an extraordinarily promising player? “Not from the get-go. But Bob Wylie [his coach at Falkirk] said something after a month. It was like: ‘You can’t stay here after this season. You need to play in a better league than our side because you’re too good.’ Bob gets a lot of credit for that and he is one of my best friends now.
“I loved my time at Falkirk. I had to learn how to control a team of men so it was really good for me. It’s good fun to look back because after I finished at Tradstocks [the stonemasons in Stirling] I went to play for Glasgow in 2012 and then ended up at Racing [in 2018]. Six years from being an apprentice stonemason in Stirling to playing rugby in Paris is pretty quick.”
He laughs when I ask if he was a natural stonemason. “I was quite good but you’d have to ask my boss. It’s a bit frustrating as it’s a four-year apprenticeship and having done three years I left to play rugby. But I had some good days and if I play golf at Gleneagles I can say to my mates: ‘Oh, I did work on that house.’”
What was his hardest day as a stonemason? “They were all pretty tough but there was one winter when I’d start work at half-seven and it was -12C. You had to scrape a couple of inches of snow off the stone and carry it in. It was like a block of ice and when you cut into the stone with the saws the dust would spray into you and make your hands and body freeze. I don’t miss those days. But I left school at 16 and working made me see another side of life.”
Russell is now an artist on the rugby field rather than just a craftsman. As we discuss his exhilarating performance for Racing in a 45-14 Champions Cup victory over Northampton in December, Russell says: “I was in the zone that day. For me it was very easy as the lineout was working, the scrum was working, the boys were carrying hard and I had plenty of options. Even if someone dropped the ball it was like: ‘It doesn’t matter. We’ll score again.”
When he is playing with such assurance does the game almost slow down for him so he can see space opening up? “It comes down to the analysis you do during the week. Against Northampton, when I threw that pass [for Wenceslas Lauret to score], I’d seen the picture all week in training that their backs were going to come up hard. The picture is already there so you just have to catch and execute. It might look a hard pass but if you’ve done it during the week you’re ready. So I wouldn’t say the game slows down. You’re just prepared.”
Russell is also more mature than he was two years ago when Gregor Townsend, Scotland’s coach, consigned him briefly to the international wilderness. Townsend was a mercurial No 10 for Scotland but as a coach he is far more pragmatic. He and Russell clashed repeatedly and his most skilful player complained that they had “no relationship”.
Townsend told me last year that he and Russell had bridged the divide. The benefits were obvious as, with Russell leading the attack, Scotland beat England and France away.
Russell is thoughtful when I ask him what he learned from his fallout with Townsend in February 2020. “You learn how to deal with that and how to get going again. Coming back into camp, it’s like: ‘Don’t mess around, lads, let’s just get going.’
“Me and Gregor had lots of chats. We got to know each other and that’s helped so much. I think we’re the best we’ve ever been and when any of the new boys ask how it is I say: ‘It’s so much fun, it’s amazing now.’ That plays a big role in the way you play at the weekend. If you had a good week building up, you’re excited and ready to play your best. If I have a rubbish week, I’m tired mentally and it can have such an impact on the weekend.
“If we’re having a tough patch I can also now see Gregor and say: ‘Maybe this could be different. Could we change it?’ It’s up to the coach if they want to listen but I’ve learned how to approach situations like that better than before. Back then we were both learning and almost came to a breaking point. Gregor will take the blame for it, and I’ll take the blame for it. Both of us held our hands up and said: ‘It wasn’t good but it’s probably worked out for the best.’”
Russell is diplomatic about the narrow series loss the Lions suffered in South Africa last year – when they changed their conservative approach in the final Test only after he came on as a replacement early in the first half. The Springboks won 19-16, after Morne Steyn kicked a 79th-minute penalty, but Russell added attacking verve the Lions had lacked throughout a stolid series.
“Due to my [achilles] injury I couldn’t play much. But in the last Test I showed how you can potentially play. We won the first Test playing that kicking style. It didn’t really work in the second Test but, for me, the way we played in that third Test, the chances we created, was much better. We went out to play and beat them.”
Does he believe that, with the rise of other gifted attacking players such as Marcus Smith for England, rugby will become a more expansive game again? “Yeah. We had a phase where it was all about kicking, building pressure and not losing the game. Now I feel more and more teams are going out to win. Look at the way Harlequins and Exeter are playing in England. In France, Toulouse, La Rochelle, Racing and other teams chuck it about and are very confident of getting results. Rugby becomes much more appealing.”
Smith joined the Lions tour as a late replacement but he and Russell had struck up a rapport before then. “He’s a great player and a great guy,” Russell says of the player lined up to be his opposite number on Saturday. “We’ve got the same agent and last year we got in touch. Harlequins weren’t playing that well and he was being restricted so he asked me how I’ve dealt with things like that. We then played Quins and I called him briefly after the game and we just kept in touch ever since. So when he got called into the Lions it was brilliant that I got to work with him. It was good to make a proper friendship.”
Just after Christmas, Russell says: “I was texting him, saying: ‘What are you doing? I’m in Paris, you should come over.’ But with the travel restrictions it’s tough and he might have come to Paris, got Covid and then he couldn’t play. If we get time off we’ll see if we can link up. I’m looking forward to playing against him in the first game. It’ll be good fun.”
Russell laughs when I ask whether, hypothetically, he would like to play under Eddie Jones. “I don’t know. I met Eddie after we drew that [2019 Six Nations] game at Twickenham and he seemed a nice guy. But, no, I’m not sure if I’d fit into, or really enjoy, that very regimented schedule. Maybe I’d be able to change him a little bit?”
That wry aside is typical of Russell but he sounds serious when praising Scotland’s squad. “We’ve got strength in depth in every position and the team is the strongest I’ve seen it. We were a few points away from winning the tournament last year but were just beaten by Ireland [27-24] and Wales [25-24]. It’s about finding a way of turning those narrow losses into wins. I believe we can.”
That drive has been strengthened since Russell left Glasgow for Paris. “I wanted to play another style of rugby with new challenges. I needed a fresh start on and off the field and I told my agent: ‘I don’t want to go to the Premiership because that would become normal very quickly.’ I wanted to go to France for a complete change of rugby, culture and life. The language makes it even tougher but I’ve loved being there.”
He has come a long way from being a stonemason and playing for Falkirk, so Russell smiles again when asked about the quality of his French. “I wouldn’t say I’m fluent but most of the boys say I speak pretty good French now. I’ve occasionally had dreams in French which is quite funny. My girlfriend [the Scottish heptathlete Emma Canning] tells me I sometimes talk in French in my sleep. She lives in Montpellier where she trains, but I’m more confident talking French because I was on my own in Paris at the start. So it’s very easy for her to ask me: ‘Can you order this?’
“I try to get her to talk French because that’s the best way to learn. Glasgow is very small compared to Paris and you can get very comfortable. I’ve had to learn how to be on my own and not have family and friends with me. I can feel the benefits both on and off the field.”
