The British & Irish Lions assistant coach Johnny Sexton has insisted that Finn Russell is still \u201cflash\u201d but believes the Scotland playmaker has the temperament to shine on his first Test start for the tourists against Australia on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Sexton described Russell as a \u201cmedia darling\u201d and as \u201cflashy\u201d before he was named as one of Andy Farrell\u2019s assistant coaches, making for a potentially awkward reunion with Russell upon his appointment.<\/p>\n
Russell is taking part in his third Lions tour but makes his first Test start, having impressed off the bench in the series decider against South Africa four years ago while he played a bit part role as one of the \u201cGeography Six\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sexton, who made his Lions debut in Brisbane 12 years ago, admits he has been pleasantly surprised by Russell in Australia and, with the tourists heavy favourites to defeat the Wallabies, believes the Scot can help his side deal with the expectation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, he\u2019s still flash, yeah! He\u2019d hate it if I said \u2018no\u2019,\u201d said Sexton. \u201cBut in the last couple of years he\u2019s come into his own as a 10 and he\u2019s been able to manage a team because ultimately that\u2019s the main job that he\u2019s got, is to manage all the guys around him. And then his brilliance will come out, once he\u2019s into the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been relaxed as always, you wouldn\u2019t know it\u2019s the week of a Test match. You can see the work he does, though. You have a perception of him from the outside and I would have said the same, in terms of he is a relaxed guy and just takes things in his stride. But he does a lot of work behind the scenes, and he\u2019s been really good this week in prepping the team. Hopefully he\u2019ll continue his form.<\/p>\n
Johnny Sexton (left) shows Owen Farrell and Finn Russell how it\u2019s done during training last week. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cLike everyone, I think in the last couple of years he\u2019s really matured as a player. You can see, Bath getting to finals, winning trophies, you can\u2019t do that if you\u2019re just that kind of mercurial 10. You\u2019ve seen that now this year. He\u2019s got his team over the line and he\u2019s won a few trophies and he\u2019s carried that form into here. We always knew, particularly when you\u2019re surrounding him with the players he\u2019s got around him, he\u2019s going to bring the best out of them and they\u2019ll bring the best out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sexton also praised Russell\u2019s defensive capabilities with opponents seemingly targeting him as a weak link to date. \u201cWell, he\u2019s been probably our best defender in the backline on this tour so far, I would say,\u201d added Sexton. \u201cYou always knew that was in there, he\u2019s a feisty guy out there.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cPhysically he doesn\u2019t look that big but he\u2019s fronted up big time on this tour, a lot of impact tackles and we\u2019ll need him in that regard because they\u2019ll be coming down his channel, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Wallabies are confident lightning will not strike twice in Brisbane, 12 years after Kurtley Beale slipped and missed a last-gasp penalty to hand the Lions victory in the first Test. Overnight rain made for wet conditions for Australia\u2019s captain\u2019s run but Harry Wilson said: \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a bit slippery, so it\u2019s something we\u2019ve definitely paid attention to and hope to not make the same mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions assistant coach Johnny Sexton has insisted that Finn Russell is still \u201cflash\u201d but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-271952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114874094976351128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}