How England plan to unsettle ‘unflappable’ Finn Russell in Calcutta Cup clash

England flanker Sam Underhill has hailed Scotland rugby fly half Finn Russell as “unflappable” ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash — and joked that he cannot lay a hit on his clubmate in Bath training because he is “too expensive”.

England will look to further their Six Nations title tilt as they seek a 13th successive Test victory, though Steve Borthwick’s side have endured some difficult days at Murrayfield in recent years.

Scotland have had the better of their rivalry with the Auld Enemy since a Russell-inspired success in Edinburgh in 2018, winning the last two meetings on home soil with their fly half again to the fore.

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“He’s a very talented rugby player,” Underhill said of Russell having spent the last two seasons as a colleague at The Rec. “He’s a very confident player.

“That’s probably one of his strengths – he’s pretty unflappable. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy and enjoy playing with him. You still prepare for it the way you would any game. He’s obviously talented, he’s got a great eye for the game and vision for opportunities. That is something you’ve got to respect.”

After being asked if he’d managed to get a shot in on him in the past, Underhill quipped: “He’s far too expensive to do that! He’s a physical 10, as well, which is probably an underrated part of his game. He’s a good defender, he’s a good hitter, and he’s not a small guy. I don’t want to big him up too much but he’s a fairly well rounded player.”

England defence coach Richard Wigglesworth worked closely with Russell as an assistant on the British and Irish Lions tour last summer, and is now tasked with combatting his threat.

Wigglesworth insists, though, that to overly focus on the 33-year-old would be misguided.

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“I probably appreciated him from afar anyway,” the England assistant coach said of if the Lions tour had changed any of his perceptions.

“He’s one of those guys whose talent speaks for itself but he works hard on it. I found him really diligent. Obviously his mind works really fast. You tell him something or there’s some part of a plan he just picks up and goes with it. All the stuff you expect with the standard of player he is.

“Like any game it is never trying to shut one guy down is the route. How many coaches, particularly defence coaches, have gone in with a Finn Russell plan and been made to look pretty stupid straight away? So that’s not something we have done in that regard. It is a how do we stop Scotland and what they can do. We know the danger they have out wide and what guys in the middle produce.”