What was life like for Scotland pre-Russell, pre the outrageous skill with hand and boot, pre the vision and the execution, the confidence and the personality that gets you off your seat and, yes, the risk-taking that can make you hide behind it at times when it goes wrong?
Scotland’s attack was largely barren in the Six Nations from 2000 to 2015, when Russell turned up in earnest. In 16 consecutive seasons Scotland never made double figures in tries scored in a five-game championship.
They averaged fewer than six tries per tournament. Crossing the line was a Herculean task.
Then, Russell. In his second Six Nations, Scotland scored 11 tries, then 14, then 11, then 14 again. That number slumped to seven in 2000 – the year Russell and his coach, Gregor Townsend, were estranged. The following year, with Russell restored, the try count rose to 18. They average around 14.5 per Six Nations nowadays.
They have 10 in their first three games this time around. This is not all on Russell. He’s had Darcy Graham, Van der Merwe and Steyn out wide, he’s had Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu in the midfield. He’s had Blair Kinghorn at full-back and Ben White and George Horne at scrum-half.
But Russell controls it all and for the best part of a decade he’s been the focus of opposition coaches in every game that he’s played. It’s made life harder, but it’s illustrative of the respect he’s earned.
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