Finn Russell silences any doubters and makes the No.10 Lions jersey his own

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Front-runner for the No.10 shirt prior to the British and Irish Lions tour, it took Finn Russell less than two minutes of Saturday's starter on Australian soil against the Western Force to live up to that tag. That's how impressive the Scot was, how good he is.
Dan Sheehan's opening try came off the back of the perfect beginning, multiple phases executed against very aggressive and joined-up Force defence, and Russell's fingerprints were all over the initial push time and again.
The first glimpse of magic amid the game management was a superb pass flung wide to Josh van der Flier under pressure. It was just moments later when he pinged an inch-perfect crosskick for James Lowe that opened the door for Dan Sheehan to go over for the try.
Here was the retort to the doubters because Russell's tag as a maverick has always been a double-edged sword. Maverick denotes different things to different people, depending on how they see the player in question.
Critics see mavericks as loose cannons, players unable to fit into the system and the collective, but Russell is 32 now. He has matured and adapted his game without losing what it is that makes him such a star.
He landed in Australia on the back of a superb season with Bath where he won a treble of trophies, most notably the Premiership title, and with his employers having seen enough to extend his lucrative stay in the West Country further.
What followed the first try here was a prolonged period of Force pressure because of a botched restart and the Lions will no doubt look at how they had to make do with only 39% possession and 30% territory through the entirety of that first-half.
As with throwers when lineouts go wrong, out-halves naturally get singled out at times like that, but there is little that any playmaker can do if the ball doesn't reach their hands and Andy Farrell pointed the finger at the team's ill-discipline afterwards.
One difficult effort aside, Russell's placekicking was excellent.
Doing the basics is non-negotiable, and the younger Fin Smith is a class act in that regard. The Northampton Saints ten is a facilitator in the Johnny Sexton mode and he was impressive enough against Argentina in Dublin last week.
Russell has that but his ability to see different pictures and act on them sets him apart. That was the case approaching half-time in Perth when he snubbed an easy penalty shot for a quick tap and tore a seam through the Aussie side's defensive line.
He was only five metres from the Force line before they got him to ground but Russell then showed superb awareness to delay the offload and pop the pass up for the supporting Tomos Williams to run over. That was the game done and dusted.
Warren Gatland's three Lions parties in 2013, '17 and '21 were symptomatic of the man and his Wales team. Functional first, always. The signs are that Andy Farrell's would be slightly less so. Slightly. We're not talking Barbarians rugby here.
That being the case, this was another reason to bet the house on Russell.
The fact that he had Sione Tuipulotu outside him for his first start in the red jersey was flagged as a huge help pre-game and yet the performance of Welsh scrum-half Tomos Williams inside him was of monumental import too.
Williams's service is immaculate and he was having a brilliant game - scoring two tries to boot - before a hamstring injury picked up in the act of scoring the Lions' fourth just after the break brought his evening to a premature end.
It's a development that raises an interesting conundrum if he is out for any meaningful time. Leicester Tigers' Jack van Poortvliet will be keeping his phone on as he tours Argentina with England, but so should Craig Casey.
The Munster nine had an impressive end to the club season with his province and his growing stature is evidenced by the fact that he has been named captain of an Ireland squad due to tour Georgia and Portugal.
The hope is that Jamison Gibson-Park - as well as Hugo Keenan and James Ryan - will be fit enough to feature against the Queensland Reds on Wednesday while Alex Mitchell has his supporters too. Plenty to debate there.
As for out-half? It's got to be Russell.