Russian bear on track

In their important European Nations Cup match Russia stayed on line to challenge Georgia by beating Portugal 41-26 in Lisbon on Saturday.

It had been expected that the Russian Bear would be too strong for the Lobos but the size of the victory may be something of a surprise. The bears scored five tries to two.

Portugal suffer from the smaller country's disease of players absent for club rugby elsewhere - in this case on France and Italy.

That said, Portugal have just been to the World Cup, which Russia have never managed.

Standings after this match with matches played and points:

1 Georgia 7; 19
2 Russia 6; 16
3 Romania 7; 15
4 Portugal 8; 14
5 Spain 7; 13
6 Czech Republic 7; 7

There are three points for winning a match, and this weekend Russia play Spain.  Win there and they are level with Georgia and heading for the showdown in Moscow on 12 April

Russia scored first at Iunost Stadium in Krasnodar and last in this match and were always in charge. Their first two scores were penalty goals by experienced scrumhalf Victor Motorin. Portugal pulled the score back to 6-3 at one stage when Pedro Cabral goaled but then Russia pulled ]well away with the first of wing Andrei Kuzin's tries.

Portugal's captain, hooker João Correia - the captains on both sides were hookers - scored a try in the first half to make the score 24-13 at the break.

Portugal stayed more or less in touch and replacement Francisco Mira's try made it 34-26 with eight minutes to go.

Scorers:

For Russia:
Tries: Kuzin 2, Gvozdovski 2, Marchenko
Cons: Motorin, Kushnarev
Pens: Motorin 4

For Portugal:
Tries: Correia, Mira
Cons: Cabral 2
Pens: Cabral 4

Yellow cards: Kliuchnikov (stomping), Galinovski (dangerous tackle)

Teams:

Russia: 15 Igor Kliuchnikov, 14 Andrei Kuzin, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 12 Igor Galinovski, 11 Alex Gvozdovski, 10 Iuri Kushnariov, 9 Victor Motorin, 8 Vladislav Korshunov, 7 Andrei Garbuzov, 6 Victor Gresev, 5 Valeri Fedchenko,  4 AndreI Ostrikov, 3 Ivan Prishchepenko, 2 Vladimir Marchenko (captain), 1 Alex Khrokin
Replacements: 16 Vladimir Botvinikov, 17 Alex Chernishov, 18 Andrei Khvorostianoi, 19 Kiril Kushnariov, Alex Ianiushkin, Alex Korobeinikov, 22 Serguei Trishin

Portugal:  15 Vasco Gaspar, 14 Aderito Esteves, 13 David Mateus, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Goncalo Foro, 10 Pedro Cabral, 9 Lourenco Kadoch, 8 Tiago Girao, 7 Antonio Duarte,  6 Vasco Uva, 5 Eduardo Acosta, 4 Sebastiao Cunha, 3 Rodrigo Aguiar, 2 João Correia (captain), 1 Juan Murre
Replacements: 16 Bernardo Duarte, 17 Gustavo Duarte, 18 Sommer Ribeiro, 19 Antonio Sarmento, 20 Pinto Magalhaes, 21 Francisco Mira, 22 Diogo Miranda

Referee: Andrew Small (England)
Touch judges: Rob Debney (England), Ashley Rea (England)