Finn Russell is sipping mate – via a traditional metal straw – from a stylish cup as he sits down to chew the fat at Scotland’s training base before their enticing opening game of the November Nations Championship programme against New Zealand next Saturday.

You imagine, despite Bath’s wretched recent run of three straight defeats, the shiny red receptacle is always at least half-full. Scotland’s fly-half conductor is that kind of guy.

“I’d tried it a few times with Juan Imhoff at Racing and then with Santi [Carreras] at Bath, I’ve had it more often,” Russell says of a libation beloved by Argentines, Pumas included. “He brought me the cup back from Argentina and when I was out there in the summer [with Scotland] I got another one, but I don’t use it as much as this one.

“I used to drink a lot of green tea, maybe three, four or five of those a day. I used to love it and this is a sort of different style of green tea, effectively. I’m probably better having this than a coffee first thing in the morning, I would think. It has become a routine.”

Something stronger might be in order, you fancy, if Scotland somehow earn a first ever victory over the All Blacks, at Murrayfield seven days hence.

Gregor Townsend’s team have busted many a longstanding hoodoo during his nine-year reign – a 38-year winless run at Twickenham, 22 years without victory in Paris, 22 years of fruitless visits to Cardiff, among them – but ending 121 years of failure against New Zealand – two draws aside, in 1964 and 1983 – at the 34^th attempt would blow those previous achievements out of the water.

After two decades of ritual humblings between 1993 and 2012, expectations have grown exponentially with each of the last four encounters since 2014. Three of those have ended in eight-point defeats, including the last two in 2022 and 2025. Scotland recovered brilliantly in both, from 14-0 down to lead 23-14 in the first and 17-0 down 12 months ago to level at 17-17, but agonisingly blew their chance in both. In 2017, when Stuart Hogg was denied a match-levelling try in the final play by Beauden Barrett’s last-ditch tackle, the margin was five points.

Russell started all four of those games; the first – a 24-16 loss in 2014 – was just his fourth cap for his country. If there is genuine belief among the current squad they can beat the All Blacks, there are no illusions about the scale of performance that will be required to banish the winless streak.

“I definitely think there’s always been a belief, but I suppose for us against the top teams, it’s just about being able to play for 80 minutes; that’s the main thing for us,” Russell reflects. “If you look at the South Africa game in the summer [a pulsating 10-try thriller in Pretoria when the Scots scored four and should have had several more before succumbing 42-28] , there were great parts of that game. We played really well, but we didn’t come away with the win. That 80-minute performance is what we’re going after.

“We know how good the All Blacks are. They’ve really hit form since Dave Rennie’s gone in there, especially. We know it’s probably not good enough against the top teams to run them close and just lose at the end, or lose by eight points against the All Blacks every time. We need to try to change something to get these wins. It’s not going to be easy, but that’s the goal and it’s our job to do it.”

We are giving ourselves opportunities and the chances to score, but how can we then get that conversion rate from 35% up to 50%, 60% or whatever it is that we need to get to?

Asked what specifically Scotland might need to change to come out on top against one of the world’s top two sides, Russell pinpoints greater ruthlessness in the red zone.

“Changing something is maybe not the right way to put it, because I think our game is working. It’s just probably the execution of when we get in there, and being able to do that for 80 minutes week in, week out. I’d say in the Argentina game [a scintillating seven-tries-to-five, 47-38 win in Cordoba a week before the South Africa loss] we were really clinical but when we got in there against the Springboks, we actually had more chances, but converted a lower percentage.

“Part of it is experience. The more you play, the more you get these chances against the top teams, the more you’ll become better at executing when you get there. I think that’s going to be one of the main parts, how we convert when we get into that finish zone.

“We are giving ourselves opportunities and the chances to score, but how can we then get that conversion rate from 35% up to 50%, 60% or whatever it is that we need to get to?

“The All Blacks are obviously going to get chances, so how can we make it harder for them to score when they get down there as well? It’s both sides of the ball. Everyone in rugby is looking at that situation: how we can hold teams out for longer and make them work harder, or how can we score and be more efficient when we get down there?”

Russell has proved more adept than most at figuring out the latter during his career, be it for Glasgow, Racing 92, Scotland, the Lions or Bath, even if recent weeks with his club have proved frustrating in the extreme.

A remarkable 71-48 defeat – the most points ever by a losing team in the league – at reigning PREM champions Northampton after leading 29-26 at half-time, was followed by a 32-14 home Champions Cup defeat by Montpellier, again after leading at the interval, before last week’s 23-5 defeat at West Country rivals Gloucester.

“At Bath, we probably average about 15 entries into the opposition 22 every game,” Russell says. “Last weekend against Gloucester we scored one, we had three held up, two disallowed. So again, if two of them go and you potentially win that game, that’s a very different way of looking at the season.

“Against Montpellier, we had 15 or 16 chances and only scored two tries. There are a lot of similar things that we’ll be looking at here [with Scotland] that I’ve had at club level. We just need to look at ourselves.”

New Zealand have a confidence, trust and belief in the players around them, and having the knowledge to adapt and adjust and react off each other is probably their main strength.

Ever since he spent four months in New Zealand as a 20-year-old on a scholarship scheme playing rugby for local clubs in the Christchurch area in 2013, a year before his meteoric rise to the Test arena, Russell has marvelled at the All Blacks’ proficiency and clinical edge when it comes to the attacking tenets of the game.

“I didn’t actually see that many of the Greatest Rivalry games but from the bits I saw, they seemed so fluid in their attack,” he noted of a series in which New Zealand out-scored the Springboks 17 tries to 14 in the four Tests despite going down 3-1.

“Everyone’s on the same page: from 1 to 23 they all understand the game inside out.  There will be a structure there, but they all just play very freely within that structure. They have a confidence, trust and belief in the players around them, and having the knowledge to adapt and adjust and react off each other is probably their main strength.

“The way they execute, going down the edges or short sides, it’s nothing fancy; it’s just very well executed stuff. Running straight, fixing defenders, getting the pass, putting the pass on the money. The next man doing the same job. The clinical edge they’ve got and the execution…it’s pretty incredible. I think they hold onto the ball so well as well.

“Nowadays when the contest in the air is such a big focus for everyone, they seem to hold on to the ball a lot, probably more so than anyone. And then they run it and back themselves. Having that confidence and belief and backing from the coaching staff to do that is a strength of theirs.”

Given both teams sit second in the respective North and South standings in the Nations Championship before the next three weeks of matches, it is not inconceivable they could meet again at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham in a play-off on the final weekend of November.

As it is, Scotland will have at least one more opportunity to face the All Blacks before next year’s World Cup, with a final warm-up Test in Dunedin pencilled in a couple of weeks before Townsend’s men open their campaign against Uruguay in Melbourne on 3 October, with a crunch clash against perennial nemesis Ireland – another monkey they need to shake off – and a final pool date with Portugal to follow.

In terms of our mindset and that belief and confidence, just to be able to turn over a team like the All Blacks would be really good… it would definitely be a big, big step forward for us.

“Every team is probably building towards the World Cup subconsciously just now,” Russell said. “I wouldn’t say if we were to beat the All Blacks, that’s going to get us ahead of ourselves in thinking anything different about the World Cup. We’ve still got a lot of games before that obviously. But in terms of our mindset and that belief and confidence, just to be able to turn over a team like the All Blacks would be really good.

“Would that be us turning a corner? You’d hope so, but I don’t know; we’ve not beaten them, so I don’t know how it would be after that. But it would definitely be a big, big step forward for us. It would show us that we can’t just go toe to toe and fall away at the end of the game, we can actually put these performances in to win.”

Russell will have just turned 35 when the big show kicks off Down Under next October. But if his mesmerising career is evidently closer to the end than the start, the great conjuror is not contemplating packing away his box of tricks anytime soon.

Contracted to Bath until June 2028, he married long-time partner Emma this summer and the couple are happily settled with their two young children, Charlie and Skye, amid the Georgian splendour of the city.

While pondering the possibility of mentoring younger players when he does eventually hang up his boots, his many admirers will be heartened to hear Russell doesn’t consider next year’s World Cup as a natural full-stop to his career.

I wouldn’t mind doing individual consultancy work with a team or individual players… let’s just say I got to work every couple of weeks or whatever with someone like Jake Dalziel, who’s coming up.

“I’ve still got this year and next year on my contract at Bath; I don’t know what will happen after that. Contract wise, obviously you never know, things change. But I’m keen to keep playing. I’ve not got an age or a number that I want to get to cap wise or contract wise. I’m not too fussed, I’m just focused on playing as long as I’m still enjoying it, which I am.

“Because I’m 34 everyone’s asking me what I’m going to do after, but I’m not close to thinking about finishing up anytime soon so I’m not really thinking too much about life after rugby.

“There’s some stuff on the side that I do, like properties and whatnot, a few investments here and there. People ask me about coaching but I’m not sure, I don’t know. I think because I’m still in the mindset of a player, I’m not sure about coaching yet. I’m not ready to start thinking about it, if that makes any sense.

“I wouldn’t mind doing individual consultancy work with a team or individual players. For talking’s sake, let’s just say I got to work every couple of weeks or whatever with someone like Jake Dalziel [Newcastle’s emerging Scotland Under-20s fly-half, who is still only 18] who’s coming up. Going and helping young kids like that or if it’s a team that’s struggling in attack, let’s say Bath just now, how can we go in there and try to develop that?

“I wouldn’t mind doing that; bouncing around a few different things to keep it fresh rather than being with a team day in, day out. I think after having been in the rugby world and the cycle, the system, the schedule for so long, something different would be quite nice and be a fresh start. It’s easier for me to say that now when I’m in it, I think. In three years’ time, I’ll probably have a different answer for you.”

Having signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Talent Agency in April this year, Russell is not likely to be short of offers, whatever path his career takes over the coming years.

“I wouldn’t say I’m his top client, that’s [Henry] Pollock,” he grins, in reference to the Northampton and England flanker, his Lions team-mate.  “Then again, it’s only me and Pollock [Hearn’s rugby clients] so I’d be disappointed if I wasn’t one of them! I think Eddie’s great, he’s really good for the sport.

“It just seems like rugby is everywhere now. Maybe it’s just the people I follow and what you’re seeing on your social media, but it definitely seems like people are much more aware. England and Pollock are much bigger than Scotland for rugby. It just seems like there’s more eyes on it, like everyone’s chatting about it and asking about it now; probably many more collaborations going on there which probably wouldn’t have happened in the past.

“Obviously there’s your normal sponsorships that you get but I think Pollock’s been on the front of a couple of magazines. I don’t think I’m ready for Men’s Health yet but give me six months!”

You almost separate the Lions and the Scotland caps. Assuming I play, it’d be pretty cool to have 100 Test caps, but it’s not quite 100 Scotland caps.

Guiding Scotland to a historic first win over New Zealand would cement Russell’s place in the pantheon as possibly the greatest, or at least the most talented, player his country has ever known, certainly of the modern generation.

Next Saturday will be a fitting way to mark his 100^th Test match – 95 for Scotland so far, and four for the Lions across the 2021 and 2025 tours – but individual accolades are not uppermost in Russell’s thoughts as he approaches a potentially momentous week in his storied career.

“It’s pretty cool, but not something I’ve been thinking about too much,” he said. “You almost separate the Lions and the Scotland caps. Assuming I play next weekend, it’d be pretty cool to have 100 Test caps, but it’s not quite 100 Scotland caps.”

That landmark, fitness permitting, should arrive in the Six Nations but when it’s put to him that beating New Zealand wouldn’t be a bad way to mark the first milestone, the enticing possibilities are already whirring through Russell’s buzzing brain.

“We’ve got a Sunday game the week after [against Australia] so we could have a couple of drinks after, a couple of champagnes to celebrate,” smiles the sorcerer. “We’ll see.”