Opposition view: Russell savours best Racing 92 showing in win against Saints

The Scotland fly-half pulled the strings as the French giants racked up a bonus-point victory on Champions Cup opening night.

Russell was at the heart of all that was good about Racing, who bounced back from three successive league defeats to win in style.

Wenceslas Lauret scored a hat-trick, while Juan Imhoff grabbed a try double.

And Russell, who joined Racing in 2018, said: "In the past few weeks we've not had the results we wanted so for us to come together as a team and to start the Champions Cup like that is great for us going forward.

"We've got four group games, it's a sprint tournament and you've got to get off to a good start.

"We knew there was pressure on us, especially with the way Northampton have been playing this season.

"We came here and it's the best I've seen us play since I've been at Racing so hopefully we can continue that.

"We had confidence in ourselves and each other.

"We forgot about the outside, we backed ourselves and it came off.

"There were a few missed tackles here and there, and we managed to convert the tries, whereas in weeks before we'd not managed to convert.

"We got off to a quick start and managed to continue.

"It clicked on this occasion and we got the result."