Damage limitation is the name of Russian game
There is no talk of winning or losing in the Irish or the Russian camps this week. Nobody doubts which way the result will fall when they meet in Kobe tomorrow. This game will be about so much more than the numbers beside each nation’s name at the final whistle.
For Ireland this is about redemption in the wake of that shock loss to Japan. For the Russians, who are the lowest-ranked side at this World Cup, it is about proving themselves worthy of their place at the same table as the best in the world.
They have made a decent stab at it so far with impressive first-half efforts against Japan and Samoa only to undo so much of their good work with disappointing displays after the intervals. Head coach Lyn Jones is upfront about the task facing them third time around.
“We are facing probably the toughest challenge that Russian rugby has ever faced,” said the Welshman yesterday. “We take on one of the best teams in the world, Ireland. The challenge is huge but the enthusiasm and confidence in our team is very good, and preparation has gone well.” Jones knows the score. Russia’s job at the Misaki Stadium is to keep a lid on the number of tries that Ireland score but Scotland’s success in keeping Samoa scoreless at the same ground on Monday brought into focus another aspect at play here.
“More and more emphasis now in tier one versus tier two games is not so much about tier one scoring as many points but stopping tier two from scoring. So the challenge for us is to buck the trend and to score as many points as we can.”
The omens aren’t great for them. Russia have scored only 19 points across their two games but they were out on their feet for the Samoa game which came just four days after the tournament opener against the hosts.
Russia have had nine days to gather themselves for back-to-back meetings with Six Nations sides now and Jones has made nine changes for this one. Freshness shouldn’t be an issue, then, though the squad’s strength-in-depth is in for a serious examination and it’s hard to see it passing.
The winger German Davydov has acknowledged that Ireland’s defeat in Shizuoka will rid them of complacency here and his teammate Valery Morozov was another to admit that events last weekend have made their job all the harder.
“After such an unpleasant defeat, they will need to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of their fans,” said Morozov.
“Underestimation towards their opponent had a certain impact on them. It won’t happen to them again, they won’t repeat the same mistakes against us.”
That Russia are in Japan at all is remarkable in itself given they fell in through the back door after Belgium, Romania and Spain were all docked points from their European Championship tallies having fielded ineligible players.
The various disciplinary procedures only ended in November meaning Russia have, as Jones as said in the recent past, had to squeeze four year’s preparation into one.
Jones estimated his side’s chance of victory against Japan at 20%. You wouldn’t give them a one-in-ten shot tomorrow.
Which is not to say that they can’t, or won’t, give Ireland problems. Morozov made the point this week that Japan’s discipline last Saturday was noted while Davydov highlighted the space the hosts found out wide against a narrow Irish defence.
Ultimately, though, this will be a long evening for them given Russia’s only game against tier one opposition since shipping 68 points to Australia in Nelson eight years ago was an 85-15 loss to Italy in San Benedetto del Tronto in August.
“Ireland and Scotland are teams of supreme level and our goal is to demonstrate worthy rugby and to accomplish the coaches’ plan and instructions,” said the lock Andrey Ostrikov, “to show that were are not here by chance, that we can also face big teams. I know that many people do not believe in us ahead of these games but we will do our best. We’ll surely fight as there is no other choice.
“Otherwise, there is no sense in playing rugby. We will try to enjoy every moment of it, to get this invaluable experience that is given to each of us.”
RUSSIA: Artemyev; Davydov, Galinovskiy, Golosnitskiy, Simplikevich; Gaisin, Perov; Polivalov, Matveev, Gotovtsev, Garbuzov, Fedotko; Sychev, Gadzhiev, Gresev.
Replacements: Selskii, Morozov, Podrezov, Ostrikov, Elgin, Ianiushkin, Khodin, Ostroushkosday.
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