Former Scotland captain Andy Nicol gave a fantastic breakdown of the secrets to Scotland's game on Wednesday Night Rugby.

Nicol joined us as Ireland prepare to take on a Scotland team that is stronger than previous iterations, mainly thanks to the superlative performances of Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell.

As for Russell, Nicol believes that the break in play did him the world of good after a 2020 Six Nations punctuated by problems between coach and player.

Scotland

"I played with his coach Gregor, and Gregor Townsend was exactly like that on his day as well," Nicol said of Russell.

"He would win you games but he would lose you games as well. I have seen a maturity in Finn Russell. Let's face it, what happened last year probably helped him. COVID came at a good time for Scotland, and the relationship between Gregor and Finn.

"He has gone away and realised that international rugby is really important, how you conduct yourself at a big club like Racing, you have got to come back into how that team environment is.

"He is the complete stand-off at the moment. It is great to hear Johnny Sexton [talk about him] because you can almost hear the pride in his voice, the respect from one stand-off to another.

"Finn Russell has got it all at the moment; he has got the variety in attack, he has got probably the best kicking game in world rugby at the moment. The variety of kicks - the short-kicking, long-kicking, everything like that.

"What was really pleasing from a Scotland perspective was that we won against England, at Twickenham, without Finn Russell playing that well. He had a couple of moments, and did a couple of great things, but there is more to come."

Support

Scotland have benefited from the emergence of quality players who can support Russell well by playing their own game.

"When you have got the backline that Scotland now have, there are other threats," said Nicol.

"That makes Finn Russell even more dangerous because it used to be the case that if you want to stop Scotland playing then you just cut off the source. If you cut off the source of the ball getting out to Stuart Hogg, that meant that you were closing down Finn Russell.

"There are players around him like James Lang, who's a good player at 12, and Chris Harris - Finn Russell loves defences coming to him so he can offload and these guys can play off him.

"[Russell] doesn't mind the physical side, but when you have got nobody creative to offload then that is how you can see how teams have stopped Scotland from playing.

"Finn Russell is playing well in a better team, that is always the case - you need players around you to allow players somebody like that to show off his talents."

Stuart Hogg

As for Stuart Hogg, Nicol believes that he is witnessing a change in maturity levels from the Exeter

"Hoggy went back to Exeter to play last weekend - Hoggy thrives on playing, he wants to play. He is one of those players that he just gets better the more he plays.

"Fingers crossed he gets through injury-wise, he had some ice at the end of the game which was a bit concerning for Scotland fans but he got through it OK.

"He is just playing with that confidence and there is a maturity to his game. The captaincy has sat well with him. Sometimes you give the captaincy to your best player and it doesn't work. With Stuart Hogg, it is working."

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