It’s a crazy second period, forty magical minutes. Four tries, as many where Finn Russell sublimates with his talent the demonstration of Scotland against Wales (35-7), Saturday February 11. And if all Murrayfield screams his admiration for his opening half a week after a success (23-29) on the lawn of the English rival, he is struggling particularly for a very young supporter.
Decked out in a jersey with her number ten flocked with the name “Daddy”, her daughter Charlie was born less than three months earlier at the maternity hospital in Antony (Hauts-de-Seine). A little over 3.4 kg arrived in his life in the early hours of November 25 and far from foreign to the form and current state of mind of the Racing 92 player, leaving at the end of the season for the club. Bath English.
“As my partner was pregnant, I had to change my lifestyle”
Here there is no counter psychology, it is the interested party himself who keeps repeating how much the pregnancy of his companion, the athlete Emma Canning, has changed his vision of the hassles of everyday life. As well as the relationship to sport of the man who celebrated his 30th birthday in September.
“Last season was bad for me, underlined after the demonstration against the XV of Leek the one who was injured during the 2021 tour of the British Lions in South Africa. I was probably tired and didn’t change much. But this year, as my partner was pregnant, I had to change my lifestyle and everything that goes with it. And my rugby has probably evolved. »
How does that translate? On the pitch, the unpredictable and talented player has gained in regularity, starting on a daily basis with the Hauts-de-Seine club. More reliable with the foot, still formidable with the hand, the third top scorer in the Top 14 comes to work against the poles at the Plessis-Robinson training center on the days off for Laurent Travers’ men.
He was already doing this last season, and this is part of a more general context of regaining control of his physique since his partner joined him in France, after the 2022 Six Nations Tournament.
The beer dispenser stored in the cellar
No more long nights spent investigating PlayStation games before spending a good time of his days off at the bottom of his bed. “Having someone with me every day probably helped me,” he says. Especially when the couple understood that their life together was going to be transformed, news announced in June by the young woman on her Instagram account.
“It immediately gave me a new responsibility,” Russell says today. It’s something I needed. In an interview given at the end of January to the Daily Mail, he says that he has since stored the beer dispenser in the basement to replace it with a microwave intended to sterilize his daughter’s bottle.
He has settled down well, the one who had been excluded from the national team in 2020 for having drunk too much after a match, then sanctioned in March 2022 for going out to the bar in Edinburgh despite the bans of his coach, Gregor Townsend.
Reconciled with Townsend
Relations also relaxed with the latter. Shunned at the start of the Scotland rally during the November tests, the Racing 92 player ended up being reinstated in the XV du Chardon after a long telephone conversation to set things straight. Since then, Finn Russell has endorsed the reconciliation on the lawn with his sensational start to the Tournament, as well as an incredible match against Argentina (52-29) in November.
Less than a week later, Charlie was pointing the tip of his nose at the maternity ward. Less than a month later, she attended her first rugby match at the stadium, present with her mother in the stands of Paris La Défense Arena against Stade Français. His father and his team had sunk (10-48), but he made up for it well for his daughter’s premiere at Murrayfield.
After the demonstration against Wales, he even asked his partners to take it easy on the festivities, urging them to turn as quickly as possible to the trip to Saint-Denis on Sunday (4 p.m.). A new man, we tell you.