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Finn Russell shares thoughts on Racing future after Lancaster deal
By Liam Heagney
Finn Russell has shared his thoughts on his contract situation at Racing 92, the French club where ex-England coach Stuart Lancaster will take over for the 2023/24 season. The 30-year-old Scotland international's current deal expires next June at the Parisian club he joined in 2018 from Glasgow and his next move has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks.
The out-half has now addressed these rumours, Russell telling rugbyrama.fr: “Are you really sure that I'm going to leave? My agent is coming to spend a few days in France to discuss my situation. Nothing is really settled yet.
“I love France, I enjoy every minute here and I don't know if I want it to stop. I learned French and since then my experience of everyday life has not been the same at all. In my eyes, the journey is not over. I'm not in a rush. Stay? Leave? We'll see what happens in the next few months.”
Asked when he knows about Lancaster, who will be arriving at Racing from Leinster, Russell added: “I don't know him personally but he gives Leinster a dynamic, spectacular and effective game. Racing was not mistaken in its casting.”
Russell has started all five of the matches Racing have so far played in this season’s Top 14. It’s a busy period but one that he is enjoying, unlike last year when he suffered when picking up the thread in France after being away in South Africa with the British and Irish Lions until August.
“I feel good right now. I'm fresh, fit. I have regained my level of play. My last season wasn’t satisfactory and I suffered from it. But I understood why and I adapted. It was my choice but I played too many matches last season. I had come home tired from the British Lions tour in South Africa, I had hardly rested after those games and my body didn't really support that pace.
“I now try to talk to the coaches in a more open way, to tell them openly that I sometimes need a rest and they understand that. I can't play every game. It's neither good for me nor for the club. Today, the fatigue that plagued me last season has disappeared. My relationship with Laurent Travers is only better. We all learned from last season.”
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Latest Comments
Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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