The much-trumpeted conference call between Finn Russell and the Scotland coaches didn’t happen, but the absent stand-off’s advice is still going to be useful for Scotland going into Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations game with France, believes assistant coach Danny Wilson.
As part of the re-warming of relations between Russell and head coach Gregor Townsend, the stand-off was supposed to have been on the line from Paris with his impressions of the leading players in the French national team he plays against week-to-week in the Top 14.
However things ran late in the Scotland camp on Monday and they couldn’t get their timings to match, meaning that all of Russell’s advice will probably come through his now regular contact with the head coach.
“Finn has had a fair bit of communication back and forth with Gregor up to now,” said Wilson. “What we have from him is obviously a real positive, forward step.
“Hopefully we will have a bit more information today. We’ve got a big day’s training tomorrow when our game-plan will be installed a bit more, so there should be some more communication.
“Obviously one of the good things about that it has been positive which will hopefully lead to a long-term favourable outcome in terms of Finn’s involvement in future.”
Meanwhile, Wilson is looking forward to working against a coach he admired greatly when working on the same team, France’s new defence chief Shaun Edwards.
When Wilson was head coach of the Cardiff Blues, Edwards was in his long association with the Welsh national team under Warren Gatland, and was seconded to help out with the Blues’ on defence.
“It was in my whole final year with the Blues, so I got to know Shaun and his methods really well,” he said. “It was a part-time thing to help with defence, but being Shaun and the kind of man he is, it was a whole lot more.
“He’s a world-class coach who keeps things very simple, which from a player’s point of view allows them to really buy into things. He has a very specific philosophy that he sticks to, and we’ve seen over the years the results that come off the back of that and I know it will be the same when we play France.”
He seems to have had instant results with France, but it’s Scotland who have the best defensive record in the championship so far, with just two tries conceded in three games since Steve Tandy – another from the Welsh stable nurtured by Edwards – came in.
“Defence is quite technical but the difference with defence is that you can lay down some foundations very quickly,” he said. “Shaun would talk a lot about how his systems would work, so we’d look at two or three things from the opposition and his system would take care of the rest.
“The key thing is being under pressure and fatigue, and still being able to repeat the system. There’s such a short time to prepare in the Six Nations so they won’t always get that right, but on the whole what I’ve always found with Shaun is that he keeps things straightforward.”
Wilson was surprised that Wales let Edwards go, but understood that we might want a new challenge.
“He had a great opportunity to go to France,” he continued. “He was at Wales for a long time and maybe for him the new challenge might have been an attraction, and possibly the right time with all the changes at Wales.
“Sometimes a change is helpful. The mindset and philosophy around defence and the technical and tactical elements are all part of it. It’s about getting that mix right for your defence to be able to take off.
“In this competition and at the World Cup it is the best defences that win competitions and our defensive record is the best in the 6 Nations at the moment, we want to build on that.
“In the past we maybe didn’t have as strong a record there, but Matt Taylor did some great work previously and Steve has added a huge amount.”
France come with an inexperienced side that have beaten England and won in Cardiff, and are just two legs away from an unlikely Grand Slam.
“They’re in a good place,” added Wilson. “They’ve started the competition with momentum, which we know is key in the Six Nations.
“When you look at them in detail you are looking at a different France to what we’ve seen in the past, probably a little more pragmatic. Maybe the requirements of the Six Nations have led to that.
“We came back from Italy off the back of a win and that gives everyone a bit more of a spring in their step. But that said, we’ve been pretty honest with the appraisal of the goods.
“We could have been looking down the barrel of a bonus point away from home with four or five tries but unfortunately we didn’t finish a couple of opportunities.
“We’ve got to nail those in big games to get away from sides. It was enough to do a job on Italy but we want to go up another notch, and we know we’ll need to go up a notch to beat a very good French side.”
