FINN and Archie Russell may have been the brothers grabbing the headlines recently when they played together for the first time for Ayr, but older sibling Harry has also had a great start to the 2016/17 season.
The scrum-half, 26, is the captain of BT National League Division One newcomers Falkirk and they have certainly come up into the second tier with a bang. They ended last season very strongly to gain promotion alongside champions Hamilton, and in the opening weeks of this campaign they have been scoring tries for fun.
In week one they saw off Howe of Fife 59-11 with teenage winger Jacob Adamson scoring a hat-trick and they followed that up with wins over Hamilton (67-19) and Dundee HSFP (36-18), before making it four out of four at the weekend with a 32-5 win at home to Selkirk.
“We really could not have asked for a better start to the campaign,” Russell said. “When we were heading up we knew that National One was going to be a far bigger test than National Two, and you just have to look at some of the famous clubs at this level - the likes of Selkirk, Edinburgh Accies and Dundee HSFP - as well as up-and-coming teams like Marr and Howe of Fife to know that there are tough games every week.
“The guys worked ever so hard over the summer on our fitness levels while we talked through a lot of things and we knew that we wanted to keep our running style of rugby that has served us so well going. We know at times in this league against some big and skilful packs we will have to adapt, but we feel we have the firepower that can score tries in National One and so far it has been going well.”
Russell, who has previously played for Stirling County and West of Scotland, is in his fourth season at Falkirk. He has been one of their star performers during the first month of the campaign along with his half back partner Liam Brims.
Amongst the Falkirk pack is former Scotland second row Craig Hamilton, now 37, who earned five international caps back in 2004 and 2005. Russell admits he has been a big help with the squad in recent times and the former should be used to chatting with internationalists given that younger brother Finn, the Glasgow Warriors stand-off, has 19 caps to his name.
With a father - Keith - who works within Scottish Rugby and youngest brother Archie, an age-grade cap, at Ayr, there are certainly plenty of rugby conversations in the Russell household. “It has always been that way,” Harry added. “And being honest it works really well as I get feedback and opinions from Finn and Archie on things that can be improved and different ways of approaching situations - and also laugh at things that don’t work out.
“We are all different types of players, but we all like to attack and score tries and that is no different to when we used to kick a ball about when we were younger. It was quite strange at first seeing Finn on television playing for the Warriors and Scotland and then going to big matches to watch him, but he is so down to earth and we always just have a chat and a bit of banter afterwards.”
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