2019 Rugby World Cup: Scotland 61-0 Russia

Scotland dominate the Bears to set up must-win clash with Japan

2019 Rugby World Cup: Scotland 61-0 Russia

Head-to-head

Played – 1

Russia wins – 0

Scotland wins – 1

Most recent meeting

– This match-up was their first

Did You Know?

  • Regularly a hooker, Fraser Brown has only started at flanker for Scotland in one Test – a win against Argentina in Resistencia last year.
  • As Japan waits for Typhoon Hagibis to hit, the forecast for this game is currently for settled, cloudy conditions after a warm day.
  • Russia lost all four of their previous RWC encounters against current Tier 1 sides, conceding 55 points on average, before meeting Scotland.
  • Vladimir Ostroushko joins Denis Simplikevich with the honour of being the only players so far to have scored more than one World Cup try for Russia.

Related: Rugby World Cup Fixtures

In a nutshell

Whatever happens with the weather, the fixture list and Scotland’s remaining time in Japan, they can know that they utterly dominated Russia. Now all that remains is to face the tournament’s scintillating hosts, aware that they must win with four tournament points – either preventing Japan from getting a bonus point as they triumph, or winning with four tries themselves, to claim a quarter-final berth.

The Bears have done themselves proud in the tournament, but this was a game too far for them. They looked defeated every time a ball was kicked into their 22, while Adam Hastings’ deft kicks and incisive runs laid on the tries. The fly-half finished with 26 points to his name – even seeing a hat-trick score lopped off for a forward pass from Tommy Seymour in the build-up.

Scotland secured the four-try bonus on minute 44, through George Horne, and then they ran away with things. The scrum-half took a switch to win in his rapid stride and by the hour had a hat-trick of score to his name.

Scotland piled on nine scores in total, with two for Hastings, three for Horne and singles for George Turner, Seymour, Barclay and McInally. The pick of the bunch was Horne’s second – the bonus point score – as Darcy Graham rang rings around the Russians, speed skating his way to laying a score on for the scrum-half.

Repping Russia: Superfan Bak-san (Getty Images)

The Scots enjoyed set-piece dominance, broke at will and totally shut out their opponents. Russia were nilled for two games in a row. It is Scotland’s second biggest win in World Cup history, sitting behind their 89-0 win over Ivory Coast in 1995. Scotland haven’t nilled opponents two games in a row since 1964.

We know that Typhoon Hagibis is on it’s way and it’s angry. What we don’t know yet is how Scotland’s showdown with Japan will be effected. But Scotland have their future in their own hands.

Related: Rugby World Cup TV Coverage

Star man

Hastings was named player of the match, and he could have finished with 31 points. It was a case of “anything you can do, I can do better” with George Horne – he burned away from the defence for his fourth try that never was – however, Gregor Townsend will be delighted with his extra fly-half option.

2019 Rugby World Cup: Scotland 47-0 Russia

Points collector: Hastings got 26 points (Getty Images)

The verdict

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “I’m just glad we got through the game with no injuries, from what I hear. It takes a lot of effort to break down a team like Russia.

“The players in that first 20 minutes had to put in that effort and then the holes started appearing and we exploited them well. Stage one of a two-stage week is completed.”

Russia coach Lyn Jones said: “Looking at the tournament overall, we’ve produced miracles. We’ve played well above our weight and today was just one step too far.

“Scotland were quick and fast and had studied us well and marked our game. Fair play to them. They played well.

“Our boys tried hard and it wasn’t to be today. We were hoping to finish on a flourish but so be it.”

The teams

Scotland: Blair Kinghorn, Tommy Seymour, Duncan Taylor, Pete Horne, Darcy Graham (Henry Pyrgos 46), Adam Hastings, George Horne (Chris Harris 64); Gordon Reid (WP Nel), George Turner (Stuart McInally 64), Zander Fagerson (Simon Berghan 40), Scott Cummings (Grant Gilchrist 60), Ben Toolis, John Barclay (captain), Fraser Brown (Magnus Bradbury 30), Ryan Wilson.

Reserves: Jamie Ritchie. 

Tries: Hastings 13, 17, G Horne 21, 44, 59, Turner 50, Seymour 55, Barclay 74, McInally 77. Cons:Hastings 14, 19, 23, 45, 51, 56, 75, 78.

Russia: Vasily Artemyev (captain), German Davydov, Vladimir Ostroushko (Yury Kushnarev 35), Dmitry Gerasimov, Vladislav Sozonov, Ramil Gaisin (Sergey Ianiushkin 64), Dmitry Perov; Valery Morozov (Azamat Bitiev 60), Stanislav Selskii (Sergey Chernyshev 60), Kirill Gotovtsev (Vladimir Podrezov 60), Andrey Ostrikov (Andrey Garbuzov 68), Evgeny Elgin (Bogdan Fedotko 49), Vitaly Zhivatov, Tagir Gadzhiev, Nikita Vavilin (Anton Sychev 57).

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