Swansong cup defeat for Russell

Finn Russell's hopes of signing off his career in France with a trophy were dashed last night as Racing 92 suffered a disappointing 41-14 defeat by Toulouse in the Top 14 play-off semi-final.

The Scotland fly-half will be playing his rugby with Bath next season and while he has enjoyed a fruitful five years with the Parisians, he will not look back on his last match fondly after enduring a tough 80 minutes.

Russell, like most of his team-mates, was below their best on a night where Toulouse completely dominated to book their place in the June 17 final at the Stade de France against either La Rochelle or Bordeaux Bègles, who meet in the second semi-final today.

Toulouse were 20-0 up the break - Thomas Ramos kicking 10 points to add to tries from Matthis Lebel and Emmanuel Meafou with Russell rarely getting ball to hand, and on one of the rare occasions he did, a kick straight into touch summed up Racing's errorstrewn first half.

The pattern continued into the second half as Toulouse romped into a 34-0 lead with further tries from Alexandre Roumat and Arthur Retiere, and it stayed that way until the 70th minute when two quickfire tries from Gael Fickou and Ibrhim Diallo - both converted by Russell - spared Racing from the enigmony of finishing scoreless.

Toulouse fittingly had the final say though, with Francois Cros crossing the line on the final buzzer to complete the rout.

Russell is now expected to join up with the Scotland World Cup training camp which saw players report to BT Murrayfield at the start of this week.

Finn Russell: Last match