World Cup Preview: Russia
POOL A SPOTLIGHT: Russia's rugby team squeaked in as a qualifier to the World Cup but has big dreams of winning a game in the tournament for the first time ever.
With little rugby tradition in Russia, the team trained by Welshman Lyn Jones has faced an uphill battle to gain recognition at home and respect from other rugby nations.
This will be Russia's second World Cup after it debuted in New Zealand in 2011. They scored an impressive nine tries and ran the United States close, losing 6-13, but took heavily defeats against the more heavyweight Italy, Ireland and Australia.
This time, Jones says the team simply wants one victory and he is focusing on its first matches against Japan and Samoa.
"If we could win a game of rugby, that would be just fantastic for us," Jones said at a press conference in Moscow.
The opening game against host nation Japan will be the 'biggest game of Russia's rugby history," he said.
The former Welsh international - brought in to train Russia's team a year ago - admitted the match in Tokyo would be a "huge challenge" as Japan has been preparing for seven years.
"We have a plan, a few surprises," he said.
"The good news is that we can beat them,"
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Russia unexpectedly qualified for the World Cup after Spain, Romania and Belgium were disqualified for using ineligible players.
The team is captained by Vasily Artemyev, a 32-year-old who trained in Ireland and played for Northampton Saints in England before returning to Russia to become a driving force in promoting the game.
Preparations for the tournament have not been as smooth as Jones would have liked. The Bears won just of their five matches during the Rugby Europe Championship - a shadow Six Nations for tier two sides - and were hammered 85-15 in their only warm-up match against
Italy in August.
"We didn't expect to lose so badly, we were all extremely upset," said Artemyev said.
Russia's rugby is in its infancy, held back by vast distances and long snowy winters that rule out play for a large part of the year.
The domestic league contains just eight clubs and the top two, Yenisey-STM and Krasny Yar, captained by Artemyev, are based in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk some 3,400 kilometres (2,000 miles) east of Moscow.
Player to watch:
Vasily Artemyev. A product of Blackrock College in Ireland and two years in the English Premiership, 32-year-old Artmyev leads the team from full-back where his pace can still unlock defences.
Aim for the tournament:
"We would like to win a game, this is something no Russian team
has done before, to win a game at the World Cup, so this is our main aim," captain Vasily Artemyev.
Factfile:
Population: 146.7 million
Capital: Moscow
Coach: Lyn Jones (Wales/since August 2018)
Number of registered players: 14,500
World Rugby ranking: 20 (September 9, 2019)
World Cup past record:
2011 - Pool
(Did not qualify for other editions)
Pool matches (all times GMT):
Japan v Russia
Date: September 20
Venue: Tokyo
Kick-off: 10.45
Russia v Samoa
Date: September 24
Venue: Kumagaya
Kick-off: 10.15
Ireland v Russia
Date: October 3
Venue: Kobe
Kick-off: 10.15
Scotland v Russia
Date: October 9
Venue: Shizuoka
Kick-off: 07.15
Squad
Backs: Vasily Artemyev (captain, Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Vasily Dorofeev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Dmitry Perov (VVA Podmoskovye), Yury Kushnarev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Ramil Gaysin (Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk), Sergey Yanyushkin (Penza), German Davydov (VVA Podmoskovye), Denis Simplikevich (Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk), Vladimir Ostroushko (Kuban Krasnodar), Dmitry Gerasimov (Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk), Kirill Golosnitsky (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Igor Galinovsky (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Vladislav Sozonov (VVA Podmoskovye)
Forwards: Valery Morozov (Sale Sharks/ENG), Andrey Polivalov (VVA Podmoskovye), Vladimir Podrezov (VVA Podmoskovye), Azamat Bitiev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Stanislav Selsky (Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk), Evgeny Matveev (VVA Podmoskovye), Sergey Chernyshev (Slava Moscow), Andrei Ostrikov (Grenoble/FRA), Andrey Garbuzov (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Evgeny Yelgin (Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk), Bogdan Fedotko
(Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Anton Sychev (Novokuznetsk), Vitaliy Zhivatov (VVA Podmoskovye), Tagir Gadzhiev (Kuban Krasnodar), Roman Khodin (Kuban Krasnodar), Viktor Gresev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk), Nikita Vavilin (Slava Moscow), Kirill Gotovtsev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)