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Russia make nine changes for Ireland

TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Denis Simplikevich has been named in Russia’s team to face Ireland for their third World Cup match in Kobe on Thursday.

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Russia coach Lyn Jones has made nine changes to the starting XV beaten 9-34 by Samoa, but by far the most intriguing is Simplikevich, who plays his club rugby for Enisei-STM in Russia.

Just as in New Zealand in 2011, Simplikevich has not featured in Russia’s first two matches, but eight years ago he marked his World Cup debut, as a 20-year-old, by scoring a try against Ireland in a 12-62 defeat in Rotorua.

Simplikevich is one of only three players (the others are Samoa’s George Harder and Fiji’s Rupeni Caucaunibuca) from a team outside Tier 1 to score a try in each of their first two World Cup matches against Tier 1 opposition.

The nine changes made by Jones between matches are the most by the Bears in World Cup history. The six players that were in the starting XV against Samoa – and will have started in all three RWC 2019 matches for Russia – are Kirill Gotovtsev, Bogdan Fedotko, Tagir Gadzhiev, German Davydov, Kirill Golosnitskiy and Vasily Artemyev.

However, Yury Kushnarev, Russia’s record test caps holder and their all-time leading points scorer, has not been included in the match-day 23 for the match at Kobe Misaki Stadium. Kushnarev scored 14 of Russia’s 19 points in their first two matches in Japan.

Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev (captain), 14 German Davydov, 13 Igor Galinovskiy, 12 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 11 Denis Simplikevich, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 9 Dmitry Perov, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Anton Sychev, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 4 Andrey Garbuzov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Evgeny Matveev, 1 Andrei Polivalov
Replacements: 16 Stanislav Selskii, 17 Valery Morozov, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Andrey Ostrikov, 20 Evgeny Elgin, 21 Sergey Ianiushkin, 22 Roman Khodin, 23 Vladimir Ostroushko

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Date: Thursday, October 3
Venue: Kobe Misaki Stadium, Kobe City
Kick-off: 19.15 (11.15 UK time, 13.15 Moscow Time, 10.15 GMT)
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees: Mathieu Raynal (France), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

 

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