Scotland coach Gregor Townsend says star flyhalf Finn Russell is ready to take on the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. SIMON BORCHARDT reports.
The 33-year-old missed Scotland’s 47-38 Nations Championship victory against Argentina in Córdoba last week because of a calf injury, with Tom Jordan starting at 10 and Fergus Burke coming off the bench.
However, Townsend expects the experienced playmaker to return for Scotland’s toughest assignment of the year against the world champions, who hammered England 45-21 at Ellis Park.
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“Yeah, he should be fit,” Townsend told the media on Tuesday when asked about Russell. “He trained fine today.
“He trained fully with the team last Wednesday, did his own thing on Friday and then had a session after the team run on Saturday.
“He trained fine again today, so he’s definitely over the calf injury.
“He would have been fit [to play against Argentina] at the weekend. We just felt he needed more training to be fully ready for the tough Test matches ahead of us, especially this one.”
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Scotland will, however, be without tighthead prop Elliot Millar-Mills, who has returned home after suffering a calf injury early in the match against Argentina.
“Yeah, it is a blow,” Townsend admitted.
“It’s a real blow for Elliot, getting the chance to start for Scotland in such a big game and building on the form he’s shown with his club [Northampton Saints] and with us over the last season.
“But the one position we came here with real depth was tighthead prop. We were lucky that we brought four tightheads, so there’s no change to our group.”
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Townsend also dismissed concerns about the travel factor.
“Our players are much more used to travelling now because of the URC and European [Cup] rugby [which involves South African teams].
“It was a long flight and we’re five hours ahead of where we were a few days ago. But the players recover so well now. We see it in how they train, in the monitoring data and just by speaking to them. They’re in a really good place.
“I think they’re really enjoying being in Johannesburg. We’ve got a good hotel, a nice training ground and it’s warmer than it was in Córdoba, so that has definitely boosted everybody’s mood.”
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Scotland coach Gregor Townsend says star flyhalf Finn Russell is ready to take on the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
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