Scotland
He’s one of the most talked-about players on the planet and one of the hardest to define. But the way he plays rugby puts butts in seats. In this exclusive interview, we ask FINN RUSSELL all about our game
IF YOU’RE someone who still subscribes to the caricature of Finn Russell as a wanton maverick, a player in thrall to his own impulses rather than the good of the team, it may surprise you to hear that during our 30-minute conversation he uses the word “balance” no fewer than 17 times. There is, Russell believes, a pleasing and effective balance to the way that Bath attack at the moment, but not enough of one when it comes to Scotland and their protracted attempts to turn promise into something substantial.
Balance is also what Russell identifies as being absolutely key to the business of entertainment, or perhaps more accurately, the entertainment side of his business.
The 31-year-old’s every natural inclination is towards doing things with flair, and he also believes that those kinds of magic moments are what attract eyeballs and drive cut-through. On the flip side, however, Russell has no intention of going through his entire playing career with a single Pro12 medal to show for his on-field efforts. He is having “a lot of fun” at Bath in his first season in the West Country, but is in no doubt as to what sits at the heart of his job spec.
“Entertainment value is definitely the thing that gets people watching your sport, and everyone within rugby should be trying to make it as exciting as possible,” Russell begins.
“But in the professional game, it comes down to winning and losing for a lot of teams and that can be the overriding mindset: we are here to win, we are not here to entertain.
“I like to think that the way we’re playing at Bath this year, we can dog out a win if we need to and not be that entertaining, but at the same time we are playing a lot of entertaining rugby. That’s certainly the chat I get in and around the city, that the fans are loving the way we are playing, the wins that we are getting. It seems like we’re entertaining the crowd as we go along, but there’s a fine balance between entertaining and trying too many crazy things, I suppose. “You might have chucked something through your legs and scored one try, but if you try another couple of things purely thinking about entertaining people, you might lose or give away tries. It comes down to individual players getting the balance right.
“I wouldn’t say I feel pressure to entertain people. Winning is the most important thing. Coming in here at Bath, I feel not a pressure but an expectation that we should be winning games. And we have been doing that. Pretty much every time we’ve not won we’ve been getting bonus points, then getting winning bonus points when we
