Gregor Townsend has ‘belief’ Scotland can claim Six Nations success

If a Calcutta Cup fixture on the opening day of a Six Nations wasn’t enough to get the juices flowing, the identities of the two men wearing the No 10 jerseys at Murrayfield next Saturday should have rugby romantics everywhere salivating.

At 29, Finn Russell may have 52 more caps of Test-match experience to call on than Marcus Smith, but the similarities between Scotland’s chief conductor and England’s thrilling young pretender are not lost on Gregor Townsend. The Scotland head coach shared many of the same qualities as a free-spirited fly-half himself and, as the British and Irish Lions attack coach last summer, witnessed the pair duelling it out after Smith’s late call-up and Russell’s recovery from injury before the final Test in South Africa.

“The quality in that last week, with the way Marcus and Finn were training, was incredible,” Townsend said this week. “We are delighted Finn is with us, but I’m sure England are also delighted Marcus has come through and was playing so well in November.

“They are different styles of 10 to maybe 10 or 15 years ago. They have a lot of shared vision and skills in how they play the game, whether that is a passing, running game or a shorter, kicking game.”

If Townsend was an early pioneer as an attack-minded 10 – ahead of his own teammates at times, perhaps – success in the Test arena was sporadic, most memorably with the Lions in 1997 and as the ringmaster of Scotland’s 1999 Five Nations triumph.

As a player, he tasted victory only once in 10 attempts against England but as a coach he has already triumphed twice and but for George Ford’s injury-time try in that mind-bending 38-38 draw at Twickenham in 2019, it would be three from four.

Next Saturday will be Townsend’s 50th Test at