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.
