If a Calcutta Cup fixture on the opening day of a Six Nations wasn’t enough to get the juices flowing, the identities of the two men wearing the No 10 jerseys at Murrayfield next Saturday should have rugby romantics everywhere salivating.
At 29, Finn Russell may have 52 more caps of Test-match experience to call on than Marcus Smith, but the similarities between Scotland’s chief conductor and England’s thrilling young pretender are not lost on Gregor Townsend. The Scotland head coach shared many of the same qualities as a free-spirited fly-half himself and, as the British and Irish Lions attack coach last summer, witnessed the pair duelling it out after Smith’s late call-up and Russell’s recovery from injury before the final Test in South Africa.
“The quality in that last week, with the way Marcus and Finn were training, was incredible,” Townsend said this week. “We are delighted Finn is with us, but I’m sure England are also delighted Marcus has come through and was playing so well in November.
“They are different styles of 10 to maybe 10 or 15 years ago. They have a lot of shared vision and skills in how they play the game, whether that is a passing, running game or a shorter, kicking game.”
If Townsend was an early pioneer as an attack-minded 10 – ahead of his own teammates at times, perhaps – success in the Test arena was sporadic, most memorably with the Lions in 1997 and as the ringmaster of Scotland’s 1999 Five Nations triumph.
As a player, he tasted victory only once in 10 attempts against England but as a coach he has already triumphed twice and but for George Ford’s injury-time try in that mind-bending 38-38 draw at Twickenham in 2019, it would be three from four.
Next Saturday will be Townsend’s 50th Test at the helm and he boasts a better win record than any of his predecessors, including Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer across their multiple spells in charge. But those two legends both have a grand slam on their CV.
The Scots have won three of their five matches three times on Townsend’s watch but never finished higher than third. Fourth place was meagre reward for those hoodoo-busting wins in Twickenham and Paris last year, but expectations have risen with the increasing depth of quality at his disposal.
Compared with his first Six Nations foray in 2018 when a front-row injury crisis led to veterans Jon Welsh and Scott Lawson being summoned from the wilderness, Townsend has the rare luxury of having all his frontline troops fit and firing, subject to any late dramas affecting those on club duty this weekend.
A few selection issues remain. Townsend has fielded 24 centre combinations in his 49 Tests to date, and Cameron Redpath’s return to fitness poses a dilemma. Is the inside centre, so classy on his lone Test outing at Twickenham a year ago, ready to be pitched back into another Calcutta Cup contest after three outings for Bath following an eight-month lay-off?
In Sam Johnson, Townsend has a solid, in-form alternative and another option in the rambunctious Sione Tuipulotu, alongside the defensive kingpin Chris Harris – one of at least seven Lions likely to start against England. The prop Rory Sutherland, after an injury-dogged few months at Worcester and a red card on his recent comeback, may be short of a gallop but the South Africa-born loosehead Pierre Schoeman offers reassurance after a smooth entrance to Test rugby in November.
A rejuvenated Magnus Bradbury is also challenging Matt Fagerson at No 8 but the Scots have a settled and confident air about them. There is a growing sense that if a genuine title challenge is to materialise, this could be the year. “That is why we are here,” Townsend said. “We believe in this group and we go into this tournament wanting to be right there in the last week. We know how hard it is going to be, but we have had the experiences to put ourselves in positions like that before and now we have got the players available to us to really challenge every team we will face this year.”
