Archie Griffin warns Wales of Finn Russell threat before Scotland clash

Archie Griffin has warned Wales that Bath team-mate Finn Russell can produce magic at any moment for Scotland.

Fly-half Russell produced an outstanding display as Scotland swept aside England 31-20 in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield last weekend and will be seeking to inflict more Six Nations damage on winless Wales.

And tighthead prop Griffin knows the threat posed by the British and Irish Lions star from their time together at Gallagher Prem club Bath.

“He practises every moment that you see on the field,” Griffin said ahead of Saturday’s clash in Cardiff.

“He’s doing it in training so he can pull it out (magic) whenever.

“At Bath he’s really brought some direction to the team from where we were before he came.

“He leads a lot of the attack and he’s always looking for you to jump out of the line.

“It’s a lot of patience, seeing what happens, and then reading off that if somebody tries to do something on their own or goes out of system.

“That’s when he comes alive. So it’s just not giving him that and sticking to our system.”

All-time low

Wales are at an all-time low after conceding 102 points in their opening two Six Nations defeats.

England and France both capitalised on weak Wales defence to establish commanding leads inside 20 minutes.

Wales’ losing streak in the Six Nations now stands at 13 matches, and there were nearly 17,000 empty seats at Principality Stadium against France on Sunday – a 74,500-seater venue the Welsh Rugby Union has traditionally sold out.

“Losing is never enjoyable, but there’s improvements we made through the game from last week,” said Griffin.

“Discipline and set-piece (improved) and we’re looking to build on that for the weekend.

“We’ve been giving teams a headstart and it is a massive hill for us to overcome right off the bat. We’ve talked about how we can’t let that happen.

“We’ve got to start fast and we’ve got to make sure we are imposing ourselves on the game from the beginning, because it has happened twice now.”

One area that does offer Wales hope on Saturday was their improved scrummaging display against France.

Griffin said: “It was good to have consistency throughout the whole game.

“We made a solid platform to have chances off that, and 100 per cent in the lineout as well.

“We’re looking to just make sure that we’re building an innings and we’re clean, so referees can get on our side.”