Ian Madigan

They have a second set of hands, multiple options in the centre and then a really dangerous back three with kind of that raw speed in particular with Arendelle.

They are definitely contenders.

Yeah, I think the structure that Van Graan has brought into Bath has dovetailed well with Russell's game because large parts of the kicking game are managed by the nine and then it just becomes much clearer for Finn what he's got to execute on.

He's got a really good underrated kicking game out of hand and he's one of the best passers under pressure in the game.

Himself and Jaliber are probably number one and number two.

And...

One thing I'll say about Russell, though, he's never played well against Ireland.

We always set up the team, and Dupont, to an extent, hasn't really played well against Ireland.

Ireland are very good at bringing together a plan to undo the likes of Russell and Dupont, and the way we do that, we take his time away, and we get defenders high up on his eyeline, and really just try and, as opposed to him having...

two, three, four options.

We're always trying to cut his options down to maybe one or two options.

And then you've got the likes of Ringrose where he's really hedging that and trying to kind of present one picture and then show a different picture very late.

And I don't think Russell enjoys playing against that kind of defence.

So that's where it will be interesting as we progress deeper into this competition, how teams will look to, you know, maybe set him up a little bit more

force him into the pocket, force defenders up high on the outside and shut down his options.

But Bath are definitely live contenders, even their scrum alone, like Thomas the Tank in there.

Yeah, Will Stewart's a loss for them.

No, even at the weekend.

Like, Sale are one of the sneaky, toughest away games you can have in the Premiership and in Europe.

And, you know, they went ahead against Bath at the weekend.