'Brave and brilliant, Russell has compelling case as Scotland's greatest'

It's spring 2015 and Finn Russell is 22 years old, a rookie with five caps to his name with just two of them away from home, one at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, the other at BMO Field in Toronto.

Now he's in Paris in his first Six Nations game. Houston and Toronto, it is not. Twenty-eight minutes gone at the Stade de France and Scotland are piling on the pressure in the home 22.

It's 6-3 to Thierry Dusautoir's side. Russell drops into the pocket, ready for an easy three in front of the posts. He lines up the drop-goal - and shanks it. The stadium empties derision on his head. Russell has arrived in Test match rugby.

On Saturday, he will play France for the 14th time - won four, lost nine. It will be his 93rd cap. All going well, he will make it a century come the autumn.

One of Scotland's greatest players, unquestionably. The greatest ever, very possibly. The one who has thrilled fans more than any other? If it was put to a vote it would be a surprise if he didn't top it.

Saturday is huge. Win an unlikely victory against an outrageously talented French side and Russell has, at last, a shot at winning the title in the final game, in Dublin. Lose, and it's a chance gone.

He's 33 and in great nick, but you can't bank on another opportunity coming around.

Playing France? Well, it's been an adventure since the start and even more so during, and after, his years with Racing, when his adopted nation came to marvel at his natural ability. No trophies with Racing, but a whole lot of memories - Russell doing Russell things.

In cataloguing Finn versus France, there are highs and lows. That shanked drop-goal as a relative kid, the injury that took him out of the game early a year later, made all the more painful because Scotland won.

The sumptuous moments in 2016 and 2018 when the Scots won back-to-back Tests at Murrayfield, the history made when winning in Paris in 2021 for the first time in 18 years, a day made complex because Russell was red-carded for a forearm to the neck of Brice Dulin and was off the field when Duhan van der Merwe struck gold at the death.

Two years later in Paris, Russell threw an intercept pass that cost Scotland points, then proceeded to drag his team back into contention with a masterclass. In vain in the end, but not forgotten. The French media eulogised what he did that day.

So what do those who know him best say about him?

"Nothing ever flusters Finn," says Scotland team-mate Kyle Steyn. "More than any player I've played with, he just has time on the ball. Something I've been really jealous of is his ability to flush something and be absolutely focused on the present. Whatever he's done before, whatever he's going to do next, that doesn't affect the way he's thinking now."

Everybody says that about Russell. He never dwells on errors, he just kicks on. "Not many people shake it off like Finn does," says Duncan Weir, the former 10 who won a Pro12 title with Russell in 2015.

Fraser Brown, who played alongside Russell for nine seasons with Glasgow and Scotland added: "His passing range, his speed of pass, his kicking short and long and now off the tee, some of it is natural but there are other elements he's worked incredibly hard at.

"(The reality) dispels the lazy narrative that he's just flash and carefree. ⁠He's very intelligent. He has great vision but more than that, he has a very clear idea of what he's looking for. He's less off the cuff now.

"When you play with him everything he does is about winning and enjoying it while you're doing it. That's what people can't understand. He wants to win but in the right way, playing the way that excites him and excites people that watch him."

What was life like for Scotland pre-Russell, pre the outrageous skill with hand and boot, pre the vision and the execution, the confidence and the personality that gets you off your seat and, yes, the risk-taking that can make you hide behind it at times when it goes wrong?

Scotland's attack was largely barren in the Six Nations from 2000 to 2015, when Russell turned up in earnest. In 16 consecutive seasons Scotland never made double figures in tries scored in a five-game championship.

They averaged fewer than six tries per tournament. Crossing the line was a Herculean task.

Then, Russell. In his second Six Nations, Scotland scored 11 tries, then 14, then 11, then 14 again. That number slumped to seven in 2000 - the year Russell and his coach, Gregor Townsend, were estranged. The following year, with Russell restored, the try count rose to 18. They average around 14.5 per Six Nations nowadays.

They have 10 in their first three games this time around. This is not all on Russell. He's had Darcy Graham, Van der Merwe and Steyn out wide, he's had Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu in the midfield. He's had Blair Kinghorn at full-back and Ben White and George Horne at scrum-half.

But Russell controls it all and for the best part of a decade he's been the focus of opposition coaches in every game that he's played. It's made life harder, but it's illustrative of the respect he's earned.

After the debacle in Rome, Scotland have come good. Two brutally hard games to go, but they're in a healthy spot for now. Russell's leadership behind the scenes post-Italy has been mentioned before. What he's done on the pitch since then has been there for all to see.

His flick on to Jones for his first score against England, this his impromptu burst down the short side, his footwork and his chip ahead for the Ben White try. Just magical.

Scotland were 20-5 down in Cardiff when Russell scored then converted to give them life. His restart for Graham - speedy thinking and immaculate execution - was Russell in microcosm. That try helped break Wales.

Chris Paterson won 109 caps for Scotland and has studied Russell for the entirety of his career.

"Some players have a lot of knowledge but not a great understanding of what it means and how to apply it," he says.

"What makes Finn different is that he likes to make out that it all comes easily to him. Don't be fooled. He does the work. One of his best attributes is his bravery in trusting his instincts."

Pete Horne is now one of Townsend's assistants but back in the day he was Russell's Glasgow and Scotland team-mate.

"As a player, I was always fully aware of how talented he was and knew that behind the scenes, even though it didn't match the kind of young, cool and free image, there was a lot of hard work going on," Horne explains. "He was on the laptops a lot.

"The conversations that he'd be having, you could tell he thought really deeply about the game. That's the thing with really high-skilled players. When they're absolutely dialled in, it's almost like time slows down a little bit for them. They're just in that flow state."

Whether Russell can achieve such karma against the mighty France is a moot point, but if he does then Scotland must have a fighting chance. The day will need him at his gobsmacking best; poking and prodding, controlling and surprising, putting men into gaps and sticking points on the board.

France will be waiting for him - and you fancy that he wouldn't have it any other way.