Scotland can break into world’s top five, says Finn Russell​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Finn Russell believes Scotland are ready to establish themselves as one of the top rugby teams in the world.

Scotland's Finn Russell impressed for the Lions against Australia and is gearing up for the Springboks

The stand-off kicked the decisive penalty in Sunday's 15-13 win over Australia as Gregor Townsend's side notched their third victory this year over teams currently in the world's top six.

The burgeoning Scots are currently ranked seventh and Russell reckons they are well poised to move back into the top five for the first time since 2018, when they were fifth – the highest they have been since the ranking system began in 2004.

He said: "In my time we've always been up there in the top 10, which is great, but we've got to push to get to the top five, if not higher. That's why it was a big result for us to beat Australia. We've beaten them the last three times we've played them.

"There's not an expectation that we'd beat them because they're still the number three team in the world but within the squad we were confident going into that game and we knew if we played well, we'd have the ability to beat them.

"That's the level of expectation we've got in this group just now, that we know we can knock over the number three team in the world. I think we can break into the top five."

Meanwhile, South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has made three changes to the Springboks starting line-up for Saturday's clash against Scotland.

Full-back Willie Le Roux, fly-half Elton Jantjies and lock Franco Mostert all feature following a 23-18 victory over Wales in Cardiff last weekend.

Nienaber said: "Scotland will be a force to be reckoned with at Murrayfield, so it was important for us to maintain continuity within our squad.”