'Brave and brilliant, Russell has compelling case as Scotland's greatest'
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Tom English assesses Finn Russell's credentials as one of Scotland's greatest as the fly-half approaches a century of caps.
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'Brave and brilliant, Russell has compelling case as Scotland's greatest' By Tom English BBC Scotland's chief sports writer Published 1 hour ago It's spring 2015 and Finn Russell is 22 years old, a rookie with five caps to his name with just two of them away from home, one at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, the other at BMO Field in Toronto. Now he's in Paris in his first Six Nations game. Houston and Toronto, it is not. Twenty-eight minutes gone at the Stade de France and Scotland are piling on the pressure in the home 22. It's 6-3 to Thierry Dusautoir's side. Russell drops into the pocket, ready for an easy three in front of the posts. He lines up the drop-goal - and shanks it. The stadium empties derision on his head. Russell has arrived in Test match rugby. On Saturday, he will play France for the 14th time - won four, lost nine. It will be his 93rd cap. All going well, he will make it a century come the autumn. One of Scotland's greatest players, unquestionably. The greatest ever, very possibly. The one who has thrilled fans more than any other? If it was put to a vote it would be a surprise if he didn't top it. Saturday is huge. Win an unlikely victory against an outrageously talented French side and Russell has, at last, a shot at winning the title in the final game, in Dublin. Lose, and it's a chance gone. He's 33 and in great nick, but you can't bank on another opportunity coming around. Playing France? Well, it's been an adventure since the start and even more so during, and after, his years with Racing, when his adopted nation came to marvel at his natural ability. No trophies with Racing, but a whole lot of memories - Russell doing Russell things. In cataloguing Finn versus France, there are highs and lows. That shanked drop-goal as a relative kid, the injury that took him out of the game early a year later, made all the more painful because Scotland won. The sumptuous moments in 2016 and 2018 when the Scots won back-to-back Tests at Murrayfield, th...
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