Russia's qualification for the tournament was a shock and it was only their second World Cup
Russia Rugby World Cup Fixtures, Squad, Group, Guide
Russia making it into Pool A of the 2019 Rugby World Cup was a shock. Their spot originally went to Romania but the Oaks dropped out after a farrago that saw them, Belgium and Spain docked Rugby Europe Championship points for fielding ineligible players.
They may have lost all their pool matches but they troubled opponents more than expected and showed decent resilience.
How They Qualified
Russia were the highest ranked team from the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding Georgia who qualified automatically).
Key Players
Talking about his Enisei side in 2016, Yuri Kushnarev told RW: “Everyone should be scared, we are Russian soldiers with big rockets!” The fly-half and former Northampton wing Vasily Artemyev are important figures. Openside Tagir Gadzhiev is one to watch.
Utility: Artemyev played 33 times for Northampton (Getty Images)
The Coach – Lyn Jones
Jones took up the reins in early August 2018. The former Dragons, Ospreys and London Welsh coach didn’t have much time to make any major changes…
Sleeping bear: Lyn Jones has said he wants to awake the full potential of Russia (Getty Images)
Major Work-ons
Discipline, fitness and mentality under pressure are the three areas Jones has focused on improving. Plus, they have little experience of playing top-tier nations.
Russia Rugby World Cup Warm-ups
- Saturday 17 August 2019: Italy 85-15 Russia
- Tuesday 27 August: Russia 22-35 Jersey Reds
- Saturday 7 September: Russia 14-42 Connacht
Related: 2019 Rugby World Cup Warm-ups
Russia Rugby World Cup Group
Russia are in Group A alongside Ireland, Scotland, Japan and Samoa.
Related: 2019 Rugby World Cup Groups
Russia Rugby World Cup Fixtures
- Fri 20 Sep Japan 30-10 Russia (Tokyo). Match report
- Tue 24 Sep Russia 9-34 Samoa (Kumagaya). Match report
- Thu 3 Oct Ireland 35-0 Russia (Kobe) Match Report
- Wed 9 Oct Scotland 61-0 Russia (Shizuoka) Match Report
Ireland Rugby World Cup Fixtures, Squad, Group, Guide
A lot was expected of Ireland, but they…
Scotland Rugby World Cup Fixtures, Squad, Group, Guide
Scotland failed to reach the quarter-finals for only…
Japan Rugby World Cup Fixtures, Squad, Group, Guide
Hosting their first World Cup, Japan made history…
Samoa Rugby World Cup Fixtures, Squad, Group, Guide
Having to rely on a play-off win against…
Outclassed: Ireland last played Russia in the World Cup in 2011. Final score was 62-12. (Getty Images)
Russia Rugby World Cup Squad
Russia have just announced their Rugby World Cup squad below’
Forwards (18):
Sergey Chernyshev
Evgeny Matveev
Stanislav Sel’skiy
Azamat Bitiev
Kirill Gotovtsev
Valery Morozov
Vladimir Podrezov
Andrey Polivalov
Evgeny Elgin
Bogdan Fedotko
Andrey Garbuzov
Andrei Ostrikov
Tagir Gadzhiev
Victor Gresev
Roman Khodin
Anton Sychev
Nikita Vavilin
Vitaly Zhivatov.
Backs (13):
Vasily Dorofeev
Dmitry Perov
Ramil Gaisin
Yuri Kushnarev
Sergey Yanyushkin
German Davydov
Dmitry Gerasimov
Kirill Golosnitsky
Vladimir Ostroushko
Igor Galinovskiy
Denis Simplikevich
Vladislav Sozonov
Vasily Artemyev
Related: 2019 Rugby World Cup Fixtures
Previous World Cup Results and Record
Russia’s Rugby World Cup Record: P8 W0 D0 L8
- 2011 Pool stages
- 2019 Pool stages
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