Athens News - Griffin warns Wales to beware Bath team-mate Russell in Scotland clash

Russell was in commanding form as Scotland stunned England 31-20 at Murrayfield last weekend, while struggling Wales were thumped 54-12 by France in Cardiff.

"He practises every moment that you see on the field," Griffin told reporters on Wednesday.

"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."

Griffin added: "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."

Wales also suffered a 48-7 thrashing by England in their tournament opener and are without a win in 13 Six Nations matches.

Sunday's loss to France was witnessed by a crowd of just 57,744 at the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium -- the lowest attendance for a Six Nations game at the venue, excluding games staged behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic.

"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 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 consolation for Wales heading into Saturday's match was an improved scrummaging display against France.

"It was good to have consistency throughout the whole game," said Griffin.

"We made a solid platform to have chances off that, and 100 percent in the line-out 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."

I.Athanasiou--AN-GR