Key man for Glasgow and now “Mr Scotland”, apparently, a try-scorer on his 23rd birthday against Japan on Wednesday, new contract extension signed, girlfriend recently named Miss Scotland you wonder where it’s all going wrong for Finn Russell.
But his international coach Duncan Hodge thinks that this could just be the beginning for the former Stirling apprentice stonemason as his confidence grows in his pivotal role, despite his new nickname from his team-mates.
Hodge will move on from being the international backs coach to Edinburgh at the end of the World Cup but reckons he’ll be leaving his successor Jason O’Halloran a real gem as Russell continues his development with more and more time at the helm of Scotland’s attacking play.
“It’s hard for guys in the big decision-making positions – 9, 10, 15, 8 – because you just need miles on the clock, you need game time,” said Hodge, himself a former Scotland 10.
“You need to accrue time at a level of rugby and a standard of rugby to build up your bank of decision-making.
“The more rugby Finn plays for Glasgow and for everyone, it can only help. He was pretty assured at Kingsholm.”
Such was Russell’s natural talent, and that of full-back Stuart Hogg and centre Mark Bennett, the coaches didn’t want to rein them in if it all possible, he continued.
“Finn has got strengths that are right up there with the best, real qualities to his game. You don’t want to restrict that.
“He wants to play the game and he will make mistakes, it’s just about balancing that off with managing the game. Players like him, Hoggy and Mark might be slightly unsafe sometimes, but you don’t want to take away what these guys have got.
“We’ve got some good young backs and they want to express themselves. That’s what we want, but we also want the game-management and decision-making to balance it off. Get that and everyone’s happy.”
Since Finn’s girlfriend Mhairi Ferguson was crowned Miss Scotland last month the merciless Scotland dressing room have obviously – christened Finn “Mr Scotland”.
“It was the perfect day for Mr Scotland,” said banter ringleader Stuart Hogg. “It was great to get such a good result for him on his birthday.
“He’s done incredibly well over the last few months and when he’s in top form he gets everyone moving forward. He’s a vital player for us and it’s good to have someone like him involved with Scotland.”
For Finn himself, Wednesday was an opportunity to adjust the team’s game-plan midway through, switching from a controlled style to open out with five tries late in the contest.
“I think we stuck to the game plan with the forwards a lot in the first half, in the second half we used them as well but we got more ball, kept it and went through a few phases, which we didn’t really do that in the first half.
“We got the pace up and got the backs going and really all the guys created space for themselves, which is brilliant for me.”
He wasn’t above being self-critical however, reckoning one decision had cost Scotland a try right at the end of the first half.
“If I’d just moved to Hoggy instead of putting the long miss-pass out to Tommy Seymour then Goromaru maybe doesn’t make that tackle and I think we’d have scored,” he admitted.
However the Scots got to the bonus point which sets up the group nicely, with the USA at Leeds on Sunday the next hurdle.
“We got the result we were looking for, bonus point win, five tries, that’s about as good as we could have asked for,” he continued.
“In a tournament such as this with such a quick turnaround before our next game it’s all about getting the job done each week.
“We have not looked ahead and we are not going to get ahead of ourselves at all.
“For the guys who played at Gloucester it’s just get the head down and get the recovery in, sleep as much as we can.
“There’s a lot of things already in place to help us recover quite quickly. Think there’s a coffee ban after three o’clock so that we can all get some good, deep sleep.”