EDINBURGH : Influential Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell passed his head injury assessment after a clash of heads in Sunday’s Six Nations loss to Ireland but was taken off anyway, coach Gregor Townsend revealed after their 32-18 defeat.
On an afternoon where little went right for the Scots, Russell inadvertently clashed heads with teammate Darcy Graham and was sent for an assessment.
It was a test he passed after several minutes but after being allowed back, he was immediately replaced less than 30 minutes into the match.
“Finn is fine. He actually passed his HIA but our staff sensed he wasn’t totally aware of what was going on, so we made the call to not put him back on,” Townsend explained.
Graham was taken off on a stretcher with his neck in a brace although he was able to give the crowd a thumbs-up on his way down the tunnel.
“Darcy is at hospital now, I’ve not had an update. I think everything was OK with his neck but they were checking out concussion.”
The clash came in the 22nd minute as Scotland were looking to stem a relentless Irish onslaught and was one of several setbacks the hosts suffered in a game where little went right for them.
By then Duhan van der Merwe had already been sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for a tackle that denied Irish winger Calvin Nash a second try inside the first quarter-hour. Ireland had already scored the first of their four tries after eight minutes.
“The yellow card made it tough for us to get back in the game. Then the injuries disrupted things,” added the Scottish coach.
Ireland led 17-5 at the break but two successful Scottish penalties reduced the deficit to six points after 50 minutes. But a potential comeback was quickly quashed with two more Irish tries.
“I felt the players were building back into the game, but once Ireland got back into our 22 they showed how clinical they are. When you are behind on the scoreboard against a quality side, you need to make sure they don’t get more opportunities.
“We’ll get learnings. Accuracy would be the number one thing,” said Townsend.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)
