Simon Zebo: It's time for Finn Russell to be King of Europe - Bath chase Champions Cup glory

Bath came from behind to beat Northampton Saints 43-41 in a quarter final for the ages, whilst their opponents Bordeaux saw off French champions Toulouse 30-15 in a tightly fought affair.

Premier Sports pundit and Irish rugby great Simon Zebo knows these teams well, he spent three seasons at Racing 92 with Finn Russell as his fly-half. Zebo believes playing in France made Russell the talisman he is today saying:

“It was all made really for Finn to flourish, the players around him, the variety of talent, the world-class players that you're surrounded by in training every day, different outlooks or ways of seeing the game helps a lot.

“You couple that with Finn's skill set and his ability, I think it was a match made in heaven. I think the players around him have gotten better as well as a result. He's been flying it since our time in France”

Simon Zebo will be out in Bordeaux for Premier Sports' live coverage on Sunday alongside Lawrence Dallaglio, Anthony Watson, Miles Harrison, Andy Goode, Claire Thomas and Martin Bayfield as host.

Zebo, like Russell, was a mercurial talent. Players who are wholly unpredictable, but when it works it’s beautiful, and more often than not for the Bath fly-half these days it works.

“Playing around him you have to expect the ball at all times, you have to give him an option at all times. He has the passing range or the kicking range to get it to any player in the field that he sees or thinks is in space.

“That's the unwritten rule. That's the bare minimum that everybody's a live option at all times. Any team that Finn's on excels.” Zebo adds with a smile.

Russell loves interacting with every aspect of the game, including the crowd. As seen with his ‘shushing’ of the shed against Gloucester. The crowd in Bordeaux and french crowds in general are notoriously hostile.

On how to mitigate the crowd Zebo said, “You've got to be incredibly disciplined against Bordeaux around the breakdown with all their poach threats, their back roll poach, their front roll poach, their centre's the same, even LBB in the back three. Everybody on the field is a poach threat and they're not afraid to go after nearly every single ruck

“But in the same vein, Bordeaux will want to do the exact opposite and get their ‘joué joué’ ball going and offloading at every chance they can.”

Everything Bath does well runs through Russell’s hands and UBB knows that Zebo had some advice on how to get under the skin of his old teammate.

“You can't rattle Finn because his confidence is bulletproof. But you can potentially frustrate him a little bit by any time you're within a metre of him and he has the ball, put him on the ground every single time and just make him a little bit slower at getting to the next phase. Make them have to play with another playmaker

“They'll have to not shoot out of the line at him because he will dump off passes, he'll offload, he'll find a way to negate that. But having said that, any chance you can put him on the ground, kick to him contestably, get him in big clash collisions in the air. Physically, probably try to get after him when you're in that contact zone, but you can't shoot out of the line against him because he's too good.”

Bath aren’t the only ones with mercurial talent on Sunday. Bordeaux have the world’s best wing pairing in Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud. Having played across the back-three throughout his career Zebo knows a thing or two about defending big names.

“I would try and get as high in the defensive line as possible and be an intercept threat, be right there in their faces when they're receiving the ball as much as possible without leaving your inside shoulder open or exposed

“Sometimes they shrink and sometimes they grow, but more likely than not, if you're doing your job, focussing on yourself and you'll have a good enough impact and that should keep the other man quiet, you'd hope anyway.”