Scotland boss Gregor Townsend has revealed the door remains open for Finn Russell to return to the Six Nations squad.
“The door is open for any player, whether it is a player returning from injury like Sam Skinner, or Matt Fagerson who just missed out on selection, Darcy Graham because we are really disappointed for him that he got injured in the first day of training when he is in such good form, and Finn Russell would be likewise,” said the head coach.
“But, obviously, (Finn) is not unavailable because of injury but because of what went on and there’s got to be a link to where he would be in terms of with the team, is he able to live up to the standards expected of a Scotland team player?
“Let’s see what happens over the next few weeks,” said the former Glasgow Warriors coach.
“I had a very good meeting with him. I’ve coached Finn for six or seven years now so we know each other very well but the most important thing is the team. The team is what counts.
“He went back to France and that’s where we are. We’ve moved on now. We’re obviously in Spain and the team moves towards it’s goal of playing to its potential against Ireland next week.”
Russell was reportedly asked by both team staff and fellow players to stop drinking and Townsend, who had minimal contact with the Racing 92 player on the Sunday evening, appears to still be somewhat unclear as to why Russell left the team hotel.
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“I don’t know, really, all that happened because I was in a coaches room until around 11.30 at night,” Townsend said.
“But I did say hello to Finn when he arrived with Sean Maitland. During that time, Finn was drinking, and a couple of players had said to him to stop drinking. When I saw him around about a quarter to 12 he had decided to leave and his parents picked him up he left after about a five minute converstion with me, and we didn’t see him until the following evening.”