On Saturday evening, a few hours after Scotland had toiled in victory against Fiji, Racing 92 took to the field at their La Defense Arena for a Top14 game against lowly Perpignan.

Within a minute of him appearing, Racing scored a try, which Russell converted. That was the beginning of what various French rugby websites later called the "Russell transformation."

By the hour-mark, Russell had scored one try and landed two conversions, then he banged over a penalty and fired over three more conversions. Racing won 44-20. "Russell changed everything," the reporter for Rugbyrama concluded. "He transformed the match and offered his team-mates a breath of fresh air."

All of this happened a number of hours after Scotland coach Gregor Townsend had spoken haltingly about the fly-half in the wake of the Fiji game. Had he contacted Russell in recent weeks? "No," he replied. "Since the squad has been together? No."

With Adam Hastings carted off injured and reporting a head and knee issue after getting annihilated in a tackle by the giant lock Ratu Leone Rotuisolia, would he now think about calling up Russell?

"Well, he'll be in the mix, yes, of course," he replied. In the mix? Along with who exactly? "If we decide to bring another 10 in he'll be one of the ones we'll be looking at." One of them?

How long is this list of available Test match 10s that he has to file his way through before coming up with a replacement for Hastings, if one is required? Surely it runs the gamut from Russell to Russell.

How are things between them? "Fine, yeah," said Townsend. Would he not have picked up the phone to Russell in recent weeks? "During an international camp?" he asked. "Yeah, OK, could be," he continued, while giving the impression that it was a bit of a daft notion.

Then he went on to outline that he was concentrating on the players he had in camp rather than the ones outside the camp. A phone call, though? A text? A WhatsApp? Some - any - form of communication?

No, just blank space. Townsend - talented, professional and a good guy - has coached his team to a number of big Test victories in his time in charge, but this is a dicey period for him.

That entire exchange was tense and without adding new detail about why we've got to this point with Russell it illustrated how uncomfortable the whole thing is.

Townsend's quotes were later interpreted by some as him thinking about bringing Russell back in for the New Zealand. It didn't sound that way in the room.

Townsend had no idea that Russell was about to tear it up against Perpignan, but it was always a decent bet. Since the fly-half was jettisoned he has landed 18 points in a win over Montpellier and 23 points in victory last weekend against Brive.

True, he's played teams ranked 11th, 13th and 14th in that run, but he can only do what he can do - and he's done it very well.

If "form" and "consistency" was the explanation for not picking him in the Scotland squad to begin with - always a major stretch given Ross Thompson with virtually no game-time for Glasgow was in ahead of him - then it's not the case now.

As it stands, if Hastings is out then Blair Kinghorn will start at 10 against the All Blacks on Sunday and Thompson will be on the bench. That, frankly, is a madness. The 23-year-old Thompson is nowhere near ready for a match of that intensity against a side who put 55 points on Wales on Saturday.

Bringing him in now - if he wants to come in, that is - would require some pride-swallowing from Townsend. There'd be complexities for sure. Russell wasn't around this squad on the summer tour and hasn't been in it in the autumn. He wouldn't exactly be up to speed on the way things have been done of late.

Still, if Townsend is prepared to have Russell kicking his heels in Paris in a Kinghorn-Thompson scenario against the Blacks then it would only leave you with a sense that this rift is so impossibly deep that it may never heal.

There are two sides to every story. Russell will have a version and so will Townsend. The player can be high-maintenance, no question. Townsend can be dogmatic, no doubt about that either. It's Townsend's problem to solve, though. He's the manager in this scenario and managers are paid to manage.

His backline is not firing, not possessing the threat they're capable of posing. Start Kinghorn if he must, but not having Russell as an option is utterly self-defeating at this point. Russell had a particularly poor Six Nations, but plenty of others did, too. Get over it. Move on. Unless there's something else going on. Almost certainly there's something else going on.

'More questions than answers for Scotland'

Scotland beat Fiji on Saturday. A win is a win, but this was a snack when a feast was required. The first 40 was appalling for the home team. They conceded seven penalties to Fiji's five, made 106 tackles to Fiji's 55, had 34% territory to Fiji's 66%.

It wasn't just that the visitors were dominant, it was that Scotland were so ragtag. All the forward carriers belonged to Fiji. Their back row routed Scotland's in the first 40. Albert Tuisue, Levani Botia and Bill Mata got on the ball in a way that Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson and Matt Fagerson did not.

Fagerson was the best of the Scots, but even Townsend accepted in the aftermath that his carriers are not doing themselves justice in the opening games of the autumn.

Scotland got it together sufficiently well in the end, but it was a humdrum Test. As the pressure came on them and as Fiji's energy levels dropped their discipline departed.

They had three yellow cards in total and played 27 minutes of the match with 14 men. They conceded 18 penalties, 13 of them in the second half as Scotland finally got hold of the game.

Scotland's discipline wasn't as wretched as Fiji's but it was concerning again. In two games they've given up 26 penalties and three yellow cards. They've also butchered a few try-scoring chances. A continuation of that trend and it's another half century for New Zealand on Sunday.

Townsend's players had a walkabout afterwards. Not a lap of honour, just a gesture to thank the 58,046 souls who turned up. That was a hell of a crowd given Scotland's form but most of them had exited by the time the team went to greet them. It was that kind of day.

Sunday will be an altogether different experience, a day to fear which might be enough to shake a performance of defiance out of Scotland. That's the hope of Murrayfield.

Is it still in them? The team that won in Paris and London last year and against England again this year? Are they still with us? Is there life in them or was that the best of it? Are they capable of more or are we now in the full throes of the decline?

More questions than answers. Tentative days for Townsend and his team.

Source: BBC Rugby Union News