Russia keep the faith
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Russian coach Lyn Jones made no changes to his squad or starting XV for their second Pool A match against Samoa on Tuesday.
In Russia’s previous Rugby World Cup campaign in 2011, the Bears always made at least four changes between games.
Russia lost 10-30 to host Japan in the tournament’s opener this past Friday and hope to clinch their first-ever World Cup win at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium against the Pacific Islanders.
Flyhalf Yury Kushnarev makes a team record-extending 111th career appearance for the Bears, but wing Denis Simplikevich, who has 28 caps and scored a try in each of his two games at RWC 2011 (against Ireland and Australia), must wait to make an appearance in RWC 2019.
Three players have featured in all of Russia’s five RWC matches: Vasily Artemyev, Vladimir Ostroushko and Andrey Garbuzov.
Fullback Vasily Artemyev leads the side having captained his country on a record 32 occasions.
His 29 Test tries are the most by any player in Bears history.
“Everybody deserves an opportunity against Samoa,” said the Jones.
“Samoa will be different in attack and defence than Japan.
“They are a very dangerous team. We will have to be at our best to get a positive result.”
Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev (captain), 14 German Davydov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Vasily Dorofeev, 8 Nikita Vavilin, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Vitaly Zhivatov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 4 Andrey Ostrikov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Valery Morozov.
Replacements: 16 Evgeny Matveev, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Azamat Bitiev, 19 Andrey Garbuzov, 20 Anton Sychev, 21 Dmitry Perov, 22 Ramil Gaisin, 23 Vladislav Sozonov.
Date: Tuesday, September 24
Venue: Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, Saitama Prefecture, Kumagaya City
Kick-off: 19.15 (23.15 Samoan time; 13.15 Moscow time; 10.15 GMT)
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
