England centre Ollie Lawrence backs Fin Smith for fly half battle with Finn Russell in clash with Scotland

Russell sustained a nasty clash of heads with his own Scotland teammate Darcy Graham, in the 21st minute against Ireland in the second round of the 2025 Guinness Men's Six Nations. Russell was withdrawn from the pitch and ultimately passed his Head Injury Assessment, yet Gregor Townsend and the Scotland coaches made the admirable decision of not putting their talisman back into the fold and risking any further brain injury.

The Bath man is by all accounts on a solid trajectory to return to the pitch, with the latest Six Nations fallow week providing an opportune time for the halfback to get back to his very best. Should Fin and Finn come face to face this Saturday, England centre Ollie Lawrence would back his England teammate to step up against his Bath clubmate. Lawrence expressed how he is excited for the positional battle, between two players he knows very well;

"I don’t really think there’s too much pressure on Fin. Certainly we aren’t putting pressure on him to step up or anything like that." Lawrence said, at England's training centre. "The way he played against France and controlled the game put us in the right areas of the field. He managed to set up that try at the end, which was testament to how he’s come on as a player.

"Ever since he left Worcester and went to (Northampton) Saints he’s only gone like this [upwards]. Finn Russell is a world class 10, a great player and I’ve got a huge amount of respect for, but equally I’m definitely not looking at Fin and saying he has to match the other Finn during the game. He’ll do his thing, he’s a confident lad, and we’ll back him all the way."

Russell arrived at Bath from Racing 23, ahead of the 2023/24 Premiership Rugby season. Lawrence has now enjoyed over a year in the back-line with the Scottish maestro, and has been reaping the benefits of the fly halves' intuitive decision making and perfectionist approach.

Lawrence and Russell were pivotal players in the Bath side that reached the 2023/24 Premiership Final this past season, and was defeated by Northampton Saints in the showpiece match. Russell has since lead the blue, black and whites back to the top of the Premiership table in the hopes to go one better this year. Talking about what the x-factor of Russell's game, Lawrence said;

"Sometimes Finn is in his own world and he can make things happen that not everybody else can see. One of his strengths is that he can create something out of nothing. He’s a skill player, he’s got a great passing game, great kicking game and we’ve looked at it and we’ve all added our bit from us knowing him at Bath.

"But the biggest thing for us is around what’s outside of him as well and stopping the momentum that he gets on the back of the forwards and their carries and that will all add to hopefully slowing down his game and limiting his options. I’ve been fortunate enough over the last couple of seasons to be on the receiving end of those (offload) passes but I think this weekend there hopefully won’t be any of that this weekend coming in the opposite direction."

"At Bath, he's very diligent. He does a lot of prep with Lee Blackett and Johann Van Graan. Before I met him, I was similar in thinking he was a feel-based player but he sees pictures and understands them because of the analysis he's done.

"He can do things off the cuff but he is able to execute things that he's already seen pictures of, that teams have done before, and he's world class at doing it. It is going to be a challenge going up against him but it was the same last week with (Antoine) Dupont, another world-class player. If you put pressure on them then you can force them to make errors and that's the plan on Saturday.

Lawrence will also take on his former Worcester Warriors teammate Duhan van der Merwe this Saturday, with the Scotland wing enjoying a run of try-scoring appearances against England. Van der Merwe crossed over for a hat-trick in the 2024 Six Nations clash, and scored a stunning solo try from within his own half in the 2023 Calcutta Cup match at the Allianz Stadium.

"We just gave him the ball, to be honest, and said: 'Go on, off you go.' Duhey is a great character. From spending time at Worcester with him, he's a really good friend and another extremely talented player. It's exciting to go against these types of players. You want them to be playing against the best players. We have great wings in our team and I'm looking forward to seeing how they go at the weekend and get into the battle and hopefully close down as much of his space and time. Then we'll see how he is after the game.

"He's always been like that, a quick person. He loves throwing people off him. I'm not going to say too much but there are definitely areas that we can go after and we look forward to trying to do that on Saturday. As a player - with him and watching him - it's great to watch. He has done well in a Scotland shirt.

"I love playing against my mates. It’s always nice having those battles. I remember back in 2021 I was playing against Scotland and it was Cam Redpath’s debut. I’ve known him since I was 15 years old so to see him come through and make his debut against us, it wasn’t the result we wanted, but I was buzzing for him and proud of him.

"There are highs and lows in rugby, you have wins and you have losses but as long as you learn from your losses and move on from them it can be really good. But for me, personally, playing against my mates is fine, as soon as we step on to the field we know we’re going to battle, trying to get one over on each other. As long as it doesn’t get too personal and everyone is heading in the right direction I think there shouldn’t be a problem."

Pivoting back to Fin Smith, and the fly half shared in a recent England media session that he regarded Ollie Lawrence as one of his rugby idols. Lawrence was asked his thoughts on such a statement, with their shared history at Worcester Warriors being the driving force behind the accolade, as both players have gone on to achieve great things since their careers began at Sixways Stadium.

"I saw him say that and I thought: 'Are you sure I'm your idol, mate? There are plenty of better 10s out there.' I understood his point and where he was coming from. At Worcester, it was a different feel. He touched on how I broke out the trajectory of how players were going at Worcester.

"As he was coming through, I saw something in him; a bit of grit and determination. I don't want to stereotype 10s but sometimes they don't want to make those hard tackles. He is not a player who is afraid of doing that. He will get his head in the spokes for the team. That's one of his strengths alongside all the other stuff he can do.

"To see him come through how he has and develop into the player he has become at Northampton and now with England, it makes me proud. To see us start together at Worcester and then kick on and start together last weekend is pretty special. He has so much more potential and so much more to show in an England jersey. It's really exciting to hopefully be a part of it with him."

Turning his attention to Scotland, and Lawrence gave his thoughts upon the age old rivalry behind the Anglo-Celtic nations. England have failed to find a way to beat their rivals from North of the border in the past four meetings, and a fifth consecutive defeat to Scotland would be the worst England record against their noisy neighbors since records began in rugby's 153 year rivalry, that stands as the sport's oldest fixture.

"Last year was a turning point for us. We were not happy with how we played in that game. We understood that. Now, we look back and we know that that was a turning point for us. We have referred to it this week and we have shown how we don't want to play and what we don't want to look like as a team; and how important it is this week to go after what we have done in the past two weeks, against Ireland and France, and build on that. Hopefully, we can impose our game plan onto Scotland and not allow them to come to our home turf and impose theirs.

"Playing any game and not winning is never fun. We have had a run of not beating Scotland but we’ve tried not to dive too much into it this week. We know it’s in the past and we haven’t performed the way we wanted to in those games but we’ve got almost a completely fresh squad and a new team and a lot of younger lads who have come through in the last year. We’re really excited with where our game is going and hopefully we take it to them on Saturday and get a nice win at the Allianz.

"I guess playing against the home nations everyone wants to get one over on each other. I wouldn’t say specifically going against Scotland, whether that’s heightened, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you the history of who has had more wins or losses but we haven’t had the best results against them in the last few years but we’re coming out the other end of the tunnel now and this is our chance to really keep kicking on and growing as a team."