Vital match for Russia

As things now stand Russia are best positioned to challenge Georgia who top the standings. They are six points behind but with two matches in hand and each match is worth three points.

Current Standings, with matches played, points gained and points' difference.

1. Georgia: 7, 19, 151
2. Romania 7, 15, 62
3 Russia 5, 13, 80
4 Spain 7, 13, 17
5 Portugal 7, 13, 3
6 Czech Republic 7, 7, -313

Of the six nations involved only Russia and the Czech Republic have not been to a World Cup.

When the two teams met in Lisbon last year, Russia won 21-13. They would be expected to win this time as well as Portugal have lost some senior players to club rugby abroad, though they did well in the Lisbon wet last weekend.  They are without Cristian Spachuk, David Penalva, Cardoso Pinto, José Pinto, Gonçalo Uva and António Aguilar.

Teams:

Russia: 15 Igor Klyuchnikov (VVA-Podmoskovje), 14 Andrey Kuzin (VVA-Podmoskovje), 13 Mikhail Babaev (VVA-Podmoskovje), 12 Igor Galinovskiy (“Krasniy-Yar" Krasnoyarsk), 11 Aleksander Gvozdovskiy (“Krasniy-Yar" Krasnoyarsk), 10 Yuri Kushnarev (VVAPodmoskovje), 9 Victor Motorin (VVA-Podmoskovje), 8 Vladislav Korshunov (VVAPodmoskovje),
7 Victor Gresev (VVA-Podmoskovje), 6 Kirill Kushnarev (VVA-Podmoskovje), 5 Valery Fedchenko ("Enisey-Stm" Krasnoyarsk), 4 Andrey Ostrikov (Agen, France), 3 Ivan Prishchepenko ("Enisey-Stm" Krasnoyarsk), 2 Vladimir Marchenko (VVA-Podmoskovje), 1 Aleksander Khrokin (VVA-Podmoskovje)
Replacements: 16 Vladimir Botvinikov, 17 Aleksey Chernyshev (Slava Moscow), 18 Andrey Khorostyanoy, 19 Andrey Garbuzov (“Krasniy-Yar" Krasnoyarsk), 20 Aleksander Yanyushkin (Penza), 21 Aleksey Korobeinikov ("Enisey-Stm" Krasnoyarsk), 22 Sergey Trishin (VVA-Podmoskovje)

Portugal squad: Rodrigo Aguiar, Gustavo Duarte, Bernardo Duarte, António Duarte, Lourenço Kadosh, Vasco Gaspar, Francisco Mira (Agronomia), João Correia, Adérito Esteves, Eduardo Acosta (Direito), Pedro Cabral, Francisco Pinto Magalhães, Manuel Sommer, Gonçalo Foro (CDUL), Sebastião Cunha, David Mateus, Diogo Mateus, Diogo Miranda (Belenenses), António Sarmento (CDUP), Vasco Uva (Montpellier), Tiago Girão (CRC Madrid), Juan Murre (Livorno).

Date: Saturday, 1 March 2008
Kick-off: 14.00 (local time)
Venue: Dinamo Stadium, Krasnodar
Expected weather conditions: Partly coudy with a high of 10°C, dropping to 6°C and a southerly wind of 28 km/h.
Referee: Andrew Small (England)
Touch judges: Rob Debney (England), Ashley Reay (England)
Match commissioner: P Megha (Italy)