It’s a question that plagues defensive coaches around the world when they face Scotland.
How to stop fly half Finn Russell?
Wales head coach Steve Tandy, who is also currently involved in defensive duties, will take up the role on Saturday.
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Tandy will benefit from knowing Russell better than most, as he served as Scotland’s defensive coach from 2019 to 2025.
“He was great to work with and I loved it,” Tandy said.
“He’s a tremendous character. I love working with him, both defensively and offensively.
“Honestly, you see something very special in training. You realize sometimes you can make everything perfect and he can pull off something magical.”
“Russell can find the weak spot in any attack”
The 33-year-old Russell, who impressed in Scotland’s 31-20 sweep of England in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield last weekend, will be looking to inflict more damage on winless Six Nations Wales.
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Tandy hopes that doesn’t happen at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
“We have to believe in what we’re trying to build,” Tandy said.
“We need to make sure we stay connected around the defense and not give him easy options or be too narrow because he’ll find the weakness.
“He’s going to be in the game and we know what Finn and the rest of the Scotland backline can do. This is a British and Irish Lions backline.
“We have to make sure we focus on being in a better place than we were last week to make more plays.”
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“He can be resurrected at any time.”
Wales prop Archie Griffin was a team-mate of Russell’s at Bath, so has witnessed the Scottish maestro’s performance on a daily basis.
“He practices every moment he sees on the court,” Griffin said.
“He does it in training so he can bring it out at any time.
“At Bath he brought some of the direction to the team that he had before he came.
“He runs a lot of offense and is always looking for you to jump out of the line.
“It takes a lot of patience to see what happens and then read it when someone is trying to do something on their own or get out of the system.
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“That’s when he comes alive. So just not giving him that and sticking to our system.”
