Cullen: Russians posed us a lot of problems

Stand-in captain Leo Cullen admitted Russia posed Ireland “a lot of problems” despite the wide margin of their 62-12 World Cup Pool C win.

Ireland moved a step closer to the quarter-finals with the bonus-point rout at Rotorua International Stadium. Keith Earls scored two tries while Fergus McFadden, Sean O’Brien, Isaac Boss, Andrew Trimble, Rob Kearney, Shane Jennings and Tony Buckley also crossed.

However, after conceding just 16 points in two previous games they were caught out twice as Vasily Artemyev and Denis Simplikevich scored second-half tries for Russia.

And Cullen, having skippered the much-changed Ireland side, admitted: “We tried a few different combinations this week.

“Russia posed us a lot of problems, particularly in the second half obviously getting two tries. But we’ll take the win, move on and obviously reassess now as the week goes on.”

Cullen admitted it was important to get the result after their sublime defeat of Australia.

“A few guys got opportunities this week to kind of back up the performance of last weekend and it was important we carried on the momentum,” he added.

“It’s great so many people turned out today, the support has been phenomenal everywhere we have been.”