Scotland’s coaches face a nervous wait over the next week with their best game-breakers, Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell, facing different challenges ahead of the next Six Nations Championship meeting with France.
Two-time British & Irish Lion Hogg is the more immediate concern having been forced out of the action before half-time because of a damaged shoulder, head coach Gregor Townsend reporting afterwards that he was “obviously very sore” and that “he wanted to stay on, but his shoulder was not right, so we’ll see what’ll happen over the next few days.”
Glasgow Warriors captain Ryan Wilson also suffered a knee injury that forced him out of the action at the interval, further reducing Scotland’s back-row options and while Russell came through the 22-13 defeat intact, he now continues a tough schedule by yo-yoing between Edinburgh and Paris in the build-up to the match.
The 26-year-old is undergoing a new experience having moved to the French capital since last year’s competition to join Racing 92, where he now has added responsibility following the premature retirement of the club’s other big money stand-off import Patrick Lambie earlier in the season and is consequently anticipating no respite.
“I’ll find out on Monday what’s going on, but I’m of the mindset that I’m going back to play,” said Russell.
“It’ll change from Scotland to Racing and then when I come back here for France week I’ll be ready to go again. It’s different but it’ll be good.
“At Glasgow and Scotland, like most international teams, when the Six Nations is on they can rotate their players. Obviously, they can’t do that for me or Greig or Sean, the Exile guys, but I know I can potentially go seven, eight, even 10 games on the bounce and that’s just how it is.
“Mentally I’m prepared for that and I think my body will hold up all right.”
He knows that any match in France will be challenging in that regard and following what will be a dress rehearsal for Racing’s Champions Cup quarter-final meeting with Toulouse in the Top 14 on Saturday, he knows Scotland can anticipate a fierce challenge against a France team that was thrashed 44-8 by England at Twickenham yesterday.
“There’s a lot of big boys over there, especially the forwards and they’ve got (centre Mathieu) Bastareaud as well, so physically it’ll be a tough game,” he said.
Russell is hopeful that this week in Paris can double up as an information gathering exercise for the Six Nations encounter, saying: “There’s only a couple of Racing boys in the squad, but if they’re back at the club this week I’ll try to have a chat with them and see what the vibe’s like in their camp.”
He knows that a Scotland team that had been hoping to contend for the title must now respond immediately to have the slightest chance of doing so.
“It’ll be one we’re all looking forward to because you always want to bounce back and try to get back on track like Ireland did after last week when they had to if they had a chance to win the tournament. We’re going to have to do that against France,” he said.
“It’s three tough games now, France away, Wales at home and England away to finish off, so it’s three of the toughest games for us, especially the way they’re going to work. It’s hard to say how the tournament’s going to go.
“For me it’s about going back to Racing, getting things done there, then when we come back into camp if we are going to progress in the tournament we’re going to have to put our best foot forward against France. As a team and as a still young-ish player, these are the kind of situations you love to be in, when you’re almost on the back foot a little bit and you’ve got to come out fighting. We’re going to give it all we’ve got and try to finish as high as we can in the comp.”
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