Conan on Russell's Impact
Russell has earned 93 caps representing Scotland.
Ireland back-row Jack Conan has expressed caution regarding Scotland fly-half Finn Russell, characterizing him as a player capable of "pulling a rabbit out of a hat."
Russell played a pivotal role in Scotland's exhilarating 50-40 victory over France at Murrayfield last weekend and aims to replicate a similar influence when Gregor Townsend's team meets Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in their final Six Nations fixture on Saturday.
Both teams are contenders for the Triple Crown and hold an outside chance at the championship title. Conan, who shared the field with Russell during the British and Irish Lions tour in the summer, recognizes that Andy Farrell's squad must limit Russell's impact to secure a win.
"[He's a] Fantastic player and someone if you give time and space to, he can pick any lock and pull a rabbit out of a hat and do wonderful things," Conan said.
"When his team is on the front foot, he looks fantastic. He's a great fella and unbelievable rugby player, all the ability in the world and playing really well.
"He takes that good and bad in his stride and keeps going, so looking forward to facing him at the weekend."
Match Context and Stakes
Conan has started two of Ireland's four Six Nations matches and was absent for the England victory due to illness.
The match in Dublin, commencing at 14:10 GMT, will determine which team advances with a hopeful wait to see if they have secured the championship. Leaders and title favorites France will host England later that day at 20:10.
Conan emphasized that the team should avoid becoming distracted by championship speculation and instead concentrate on extending their 11-game winning streak against Scotland across all competitions and retaining the Triple Crown.
"All of that is out of our hands, so we'll control what we can and be focussed on putting in the best performance that we can and if everything else goes our way brilliant, but we need to worry about ourselves and what we need to do first and foremost," he added.
The 33-year-old, who described missing the record 42-21 away win over England at the Allianz Stadium due to illness as "gutting," has called on his teammates to improve on their previous performances to overcome Scotland.
"We need to be at our best and we need to push on from the levels of performance even from Twickenham because we haven't hit our straps as much as we did that day, so that's a big challenge for us to be better again than we were then."
