Lions star has score to settle after England international refused to be subbed on

He's the self-styled Lionel Messi of rugby who will have the ball on a string for the Lions this summer - but before Finn Russell can plot a famous series win, he has a rather different conundrum to solve closer to home.

"My daughters just think I am an actual Lion now and I'll turn into one, so explaining that might taking some figuring out," the fly-half said.

"We were watching the squad announcement - we were behind because Charlie, my daughter, had accidentally paused the TV - and anytime BIL [the Lions mascot] came on the screen, she just kept on screaming 'the lion, the lion'. It's awesome.

"Everything is just very different when a two-and-a-half year old is around."

As anyone who has played against Bath or Scotland in the past couple of seasons will tell you, the same could be said about Russell.

At 32, and at the peak of his considerable powers, the stars seem to be aligning for this prodigious talent to deliver a career-defining summer of rugby.

Though he faces stiff competition from Fin Smith and Marcus Smith, Russell is the early favourite for the starting No.10 jersey and, with it, the responsibility of leading an attack that will need to score a significant haul of points.

Add in a personal legacy that needs furnishing with medals - to go alongside the dozens of YouTube highlights reels that show off his arsenal of dummies, passes and offloads, - in order to cement his status as a modern great, and it's a challenge - and tour - made for a talent like his, even if he's keen to play it cool.

"It will be hard but I definitely think we have the players who can get a series win," he said. "Australia are a good team, they're getting stronger, have some really good players and are very strong.

"We played them in November, as did England, Ireland and Wales, so we will understand them as a team but it will be very tough over there."

Part of his drive is the sense he has a score to settle with the Lions, even if he is a three-time tourist.

In 2017 he was part of the "geography six" alongside Allan Dell, Tomas Francis, Kristian Dacey, Corey Hill and Gareth Davies. They were parachuted in halfway through the tour to New Zealand to effectively make up the numbers for midweek matches against the Chiefs in Hamilton and the Hurricanes in Wellington, and protect the Test team from unnecessary minutes.

Head coach Warren Gatland admitted he drafted them in because they were close by - Francis, Dacey, Hill and Davies were with the Wales team, also in New Zealand, while Dell and Russell were in Australia with Scotland. English players, touring Argentina, were overlooked.

Not everyone was happy and the reception. Prop Joe Marler even refused to be replaced in one to match, thus denying Dell an appearance.

Ironically, Dell - and Russell - were the two players who did make it onto the pitch, with Dell called upon when Marler was sin-binned against the Chiefs.

Four years on and Russell was on the full tour to South Africa, but he picked up an Achilles injury and played only in the third Test, with a brilliant cameo performance off the bench in the deciding defeat, while every match was behind closed doors due the Covid-19 pandemic. He hopes that 2025 makes up for those experiences - and is keen to hit the ground running.

"We need to get everyone on the same page, being able to do that quickly will allow us to construct a gameplan and implement that at the weekends," said the father-of-two, who will be joined on tour by wife Emma, daughters Charlie and Skye and mum Sally.

"We need that gel to win the series, we will connect off the pitch but on it as well. We need a tight-knit group to go out and perform well at the weekends but also the confidence the other guys have your back. That is built through the relationships you develop."

Russell is fortunate that he has so many familiar faces around him. Indeed, there is a possibility that an entire try could be created by Scottish backs.

Scotland captain Sione Tuipolotu is odds-on to start at inside centre, Huw Jones, who dovetails so brilliantly with Tuipolotu for the national side and Glasgow Warriors, has a strong claim for the No.13 spot, while lurking on the wing could well be Duhan van der Merwe - Scotland's record try-scorer. Add in full-back Blair Kinghorn and it's a party.

"There are a lot of Irish and English players as well," Russell pointed out.

"But we have confidence as Scots because we know each other so well and how we play the game. With the Lions, you take your national top off and develop the same cohesion with everyone.

"We need to forget where we are from."

There is little chance of Russell forgetting his roots, of course. He's asked to speak about it often enough.

After leaving school, Russell, believing he wouldn't make it as a rugby player, worked as a stonemason, earning £300 per week for three years.

He played for Falkirk on the side, earning £50 a go, and it while he was there that Glasgow Warriors saw something in him and reckoned he was worth a punt. Russell, 19 at the time, quit his stonemasonry course to accept a £10,000 wage as a rugby apprentice, with his parents covering his monthly car payments.

He said: "On rainy days it could be pretty miserable. It could be tough but I enjoyed it.

"I'd be making windowsills, door frames, fireplaces - even building walls. But compared to playing rugby, it's night and day. If I ever have a bad day at training, I think back to what it was like working in that cold shed."

At Glasgow, Russell was a hit. He was a Scotland international within two years and steered Warriors to the Pro12 title in 2015.

Since then, he has played for Racing 92 in France and now Bath in the English Premiership, while leading Scotland's attack for a decade.

There, however, have been a few bumps in the road. He was dropped from the national squad before the 2020 Six Nations after refusing to stop drinking at a hotel bar and then skipping training the next day, while he was dropped again in 2022 due to poor form.

Now, more mature at 32, he's found the perfect balance on and off the pitch. He is still the mercurial talent that loves an audacious offload and can deliver cross-field kicks few others can even see but there is a steely pragmatism that has slowly crept into his game.

"I don't see it as off the cuff. I don't see it as risky. That's my style of play," he told the Telegraph in January.

"I think my style probably has changed a bit, I think it is more pragmatic and the way I view the game and knowing that you can just build pressure, whereas before my mindset was kind of attacking, wanting the ball and going at teams.

"Now there's a bit more of an element of how you manage a game, how you turn pressure on to them and you can't just score off every phase. I have learnt when to put the brakes on."

Cold and calculating? Just like a lion then. Just, as he now has to explain to his daughter, not a real one.