Russell shouldered the majority of the blame from Scotland’s Calcutta defeat at Twickenham last Saturday after missing three conversions, including one to win the game in the final minute.
The 32-year-old, however, was excellent as Scotland dominated their rivals, especially in the first-half, but that was overlooked with the scrutiny on his goal kicking.
Russell is arguably the best fly-half in the world and has been Scotland’s talisman repeatedly over the years. Smith was part of the Scotland travelling squad in London, despite not being involved in matchday, and he admits it was mixed emotions in the dressing room.
“Yeah, it was quite odd,” Smith admitted. “There was obviously a lot of frustration there, just in the manner of the way we lost. But like Gregor said in the changing room after, we’ve played worse and won those kinds of games.
“So I suppose if you’re trying to take any positives from it, you can say that we played well and we dominated a pretty strong England side that had just beaten France. And on another day, Finn gets that kick and we’re saying ‘What a performance it was from Scotland, we dominated them’.
“So it’s like you lose by a point and Finn’s the easy scapegoat because you say he missed three kicks. But nine times out of ten he gets them; it’s just the one he didn’t.”
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Naturally, Russell received flak on social media for missing several kicks despite orchestrating some sublime attacking moves but Smith knows the Bath star will shrug it off.
He added: “That’s the beautiful thing about playing professional sport, is that people who are not necessarily well studied on the game like to pick a part where the obvious errors are. I think Finn is very good at dealing with that, and he’s very upfront: he should have got those kicks and he missed the kicks, so he can deal with that.
“I’m sure he’s absolutely fine. And I understand for the fans, they want us to win the game and they’re frustrated.”
The increased prevalence of social media brings different pressures for professional athletes with people empowered by relative anonymity. Critics routeinly post abuse that they’d never have the courage to say in real life and Smith deleted twitter – even if that doesn’t prevent him seeing things!
“If people are just calling you rubbish at rugby it’s a bit tough,” he admitted. “If people are nitpicking and there’s usually no substance to it, it’s just random fans, they would probably be quite nice to you if they saw you after a game.
“I’ve deleted Twitter. I don’t have Twitter – my account is still there but I don’t have the app, because I just didn’t see it as being very beneficial. The mob is fickle sometimes, so I decided it’s best not to read that stuff.
“People usually tell me if I’m getting roasted on social media. Like when we came back from the World Cup, I’d been out for a few drinks – I think it was to watch the final. And one of the boys was like ‘Mate, you’re getting absolutely roasted on Twitter’. And I was like ‘Ah jeez’. And my family will google it and search for it, and then reluctantly let me know that they’ve seen it.”
(Image: SNS Group)
There were several controversial moments in Scotland’s defeat to England but the biggest debate was whether Tommy Freeman’s try should have stood.
“I didn’t see it at the time,” Smith admitted. “Because we were sitting on the bench, and where we were sitting you can’t really see it, and they didn’t show it in the stadium. I was like, ‘It looks like it’s kind of held up’.
“I only saw it on Monday night actually, and the ref’s in a pretty good position to see it. But I think . . . . If the boys maybe had kicked up more of a fuss, would they have checked it? I don’t know.”
Smith is almost certain to start for Glasgow against Ospreys on Saturday night but it’s unclear whether he will be at outside-centre or full-back.
The versatile 24-year-old has played the majority of his Warriors career at full-back but he impressed at 13 against the Dragons and Connacht.
On playing at outside centre, Smith said: “Yeah, it’s good. It’s obviously different to what I was used to before I got injured, but it’s where I spent most of my days at school. It was only in my first year of under-20s that I started playing full-back. And since then I’ve not really played there [ie outside centre], so I’ve got to learn a lot of new stuff. Defending set pieces is probably the most different thing. Attacking is interchangeable, so it doesn’t really make a difference.
“But it’s been good. I think it’s quite good for me because it gets me into a game earlier. So you get carries or you can get tackles earlier, rather than, say, being a full-back and if you’re just defending for the first part, you’re just running around for the first 20 minutes and then maybe get caught out at some point. But with 13 you’re pretty much straight into it. I quite enjoy that aspect and I don’t mind contact.”
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-03-01 14:22:30
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