Krasnoyarsk, Rotorua and now Kobe in Japan. The third ever Test meeting of Ireland and Russia has crucial Rugby World Cup Pool A points on the line as the sides take each other on under Misaki Stadium’s closed roof.
RUGBY WORLD CUP – POOL A: Thursday, October 3
IRELAND (2nd) v RUSSIA (5th), Kobe Misaki Stadium, 7.15pm local time/11.15am Irish time (live eir Sport 1/RTÉ 2/UTV/ITV/RTÉ Radio 1/BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio 5 Live/IRFU Live Blog)
Team News: Jonathan Sexton will become the 106th player to captain Ireland when he leads the team out at Kobe Misaki Stadium later today to play Russia.
There are 11 personnel changes for Ireland’s third Pool A match, with only Rob Kearney, who passed his HIA protocols, Garry Ringrose, Keith Earls and Peter O’Mahony retained from last Saturday’s 19-12 defeat to tournament hosts Japan.
Provincial colleagues John Ryan and Jean Kleyn will make their Rugby World Cup debuts in Kobe, and it is an all-Munster tight five as Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and Tadhg Beirne are also selected to start. Both Kilcoyne and Beirne came on as replacements in the first two pool games.
Vice-captain O’Mahony is joined in the back row by Rhys Ruddock and Ulster’s Jordi Murphy, the injury replacement for fractured foot victim Jack Conan. Murphy features at the base of the scrum, with two of his previous five Test starts at number 8 coming against Italy this year.
Sexton, who picked up a quad injury against Scotland, returns in an all-Leinster half-back pairing with Luke McGrath, while Ringrose is set for his third World Cup start on the trot. He teams up with Bundee Aki who was his centre partner for the opening 27-3 bonus point victory over Scotland in Yokohama.
Andrew Conway slots back in on the right wing and will be looking to add to his try from the Scotland match. His Munster team-mate Joey Carbery will provide scrum half cover for the first time, with fellow replacements Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, CJ Stander, Jack Carty and Jordan Larmour all poised to make their third appearances of the pool stages.
Speaking about the personnel changes to the team, head coach Joe Schmidt said: “We do need to make sure everyone is ready and involved as much as possible, to get everyone up to speed. It’s pretty tough with a six-day and then a five-day turnaround – there’s always going to be a bit of attrition.
“We’re looking to freshen it up and give guys an opportunity. It’s great because we’ve got some guys who would have been very, very keen to be involved who will get an opportunity (against Russia) on Thursday.
“We have to stay around our performance-orientated goals. We can’t put anything on the scoreboard without getting the things we need to put in place – that we build the pressure or that we create the opportunities from.
“I felt the first 20 minutes last weekend (against Japan) was very good. We got the right field position and turned a few balls over, which was frustrating. But we converted two tries on the back of some really good line breaks and maybe that was to our detriment because we kinda stepped back after that and didn’t play with the same front foot. You can’t afford to do that against a quality opposition.”
Asked about the inclusion of Murphy as number 8 and the impending return of Robbie Henshaw from a hamstring injury, he added: “Jordi trained unbelievably well today. He is straight off the flight, he got in late Sunday so he’s at least had a couple of nights. He was feeling good yesterday.
“We’ll give him the weekend then after that, so we are just asking for him to do the best he can for us. The one thing with Jordi is that you seldom get anything other than that. He’s a really good performer for us and we’d have a lot of confidence about him being able to slot straight in.
“We felt that was a risk we don’t need to take (playing Henshaw) because Garry is feeling good. We can put Robbie in maybe next week (against Samoa) and, at the same time, we’ve got Bundee back. He’s got a fair bit of bounce about him.
“With Chris Farrell suffering a concussion and it being a five-day turnaround, our hands are tied there. We want to make sure we look after Chris as well and that’s part of the formula.
“We thought about potentially moving Keith Earls in there, but then we’d have had to keep Jacob Stockdale ticking over, and so it was really based around who was still feeling really good.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s Welsh head coach Lyn Jones has made nine personnel changes to the team which they field for their opening pool fixtures against Japan and Samoa – back-to-back defeats (30-10 and 34-9).
Yury Kushnarev, their most-capped player of all-time and record points scorer, is a notable absentee. Vasily Artemyev, the former Ireland Under-18 Schools international who played for Blackrock College and UCD, has captained his country on a record 32 occasions. His haul of 29 Test tries are the most by any player in Russian history.
Krasny Yar duo Igor Galinovskiy and Kirill Golosnitskiy pair up together in the centre, with the latter’s wing spot filled by Denis Simplikevich, who made his Russia debut in their 62-12 pool defeat to Ireland at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Half-backs Ramil Gaisin and Dmitry Perov and lock Andrey Garbuzov are promoted from the bench, while VVA Saracens pair Andrei Polivalov and Evgeny Matveev join five-times capped tighthead Kirill Gotovtsev in the front row.
Krasny Yar’s Victor Gresev makes his 99th international appearance at number 8, with the freshened-up back row completed by Anton Sychev and Tagir Gadzhiev, one of the six players who are set to make their third successive start of the tournament.
Speaking ahead of his side’s penultimate match in Japan, Jones said: “We are facing probably the toughest challenge that Russian rugby has ever faced. 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.
“The preparation has gone well. The short turnaround for the Samoa game, when energy levels were low at half-time, allowed Samoa back into the game. We feel that if Samoa had been the first game, we would have won. It wasn’t, so our focus now comes on Ireland.
“We’ve made nine changes to ensure that we have fresh energy. Lots of selection is very, very close, no matter what. Ramil (Gaisin) and Anton (Sychev) are coming into the side, exceptionally talented players, they are very confident to add something to our performance.
“The energy of new players will put more pressure on Ireland. We weren’t able to put pressure on Samoa and now it’s important to take time away from Ireland.”
IRELAND: Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster); Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster), Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) (capt), Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster); Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster), Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster), John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster), Jean Kleyn (Munster), Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster), Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster).
Replacements: Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Iain Henderson (Queen’s University/Ulster), CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster), Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster), Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht), Jordan Larmour (St. Mary’s College/Leinster).
RUSSIA: Vasily Artemyev (Krasny Yar) (capt); German Davydov (VVA Saracens), Igor Galinovskiy (Krasny Yar), Kirill Golosnitskiy (Krasny Yar), Denis Simplikevich (Yenisey-STM); Ramil Gaisin (Yenisey-STM), Dmitry Perov (VVA Saracens); Andrei Polivalov (VVA Saracens), Evgeny Matveev (VVA Saracens), Kirill Gotovtsev (Krasny Yar), Andrey Garbuzov (Krasny Yar), Bogdan Fedotko (Krasny Yar), Anton Sychev (Metallurg), Tagir Gadzhiev (RC Kuban), Victor Gresev (Krasny Yar).
Replacements: Stanislav Selskii (Yenisey-STM), Valery Morozov (Sale Sharks), Vladimir Podrezov (VVA Saracens), Andrey Ostrikov (FC Grenoble), Evgeny Elgin (Yenisey-STM), Sergey Ianiushkin (Lokomotiv Penza), Roman Khodin (RC Kuban), Vladimir Ostroushko (RC Kuban).
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant Referees: Mathieu Raynal (France), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
Television Match Official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Pre-Match Quotes: Andy Farrell (Ireland) –
You can use a setback in the right manner. You can look at the last three World Cups. South Africa lost to Japan and lost the semi-final (to New Zealand) 20-18. You look at 2011 – France looked in disarray and there’s a debate about whether they should have won the final.
“In 2007, I was part of the England squad that got a thrashing against South Africa. There was a bit of turmoil in that camp and they managed to get to the final. There was a debatable try that was disallowed. You can use these to your advantage, they’re not ideal, but if you use them to your advantage they can be powerful.
“After a couple of days of understanding the reasons why, we’re in good spirits – back on track and ready to prove a point. Johnny has been great within camp the whole pre-season. He’s right on song and he’s determined to put his feelings across to the team. His calmness (in dealing) with these situations is going to be crucial in the next two weeks.
“If you asked Jordi when he got off the plane, would he want to sit this game out or not, he’d have answered that he wants to get stuck in right away.
“He’s been great in the last couple of days, he’s slotted right in. In terms of getting the travel out of your legs, of getting him into the mix of it, he’s up to speed. He’s not missed a beat since he’s been here.”
Vasily Artemyev (Russia) –
It (the number of personnel changes) does not change the picture, as in our groups of forwards and three-quarters we’ve got leaders in different aspects of play, be it defence or set pieces. Therefore, a captain’s role in game control is not as high as it might seem.
“We have many experienced players who will perform their roles. I am sure that, regardless of who comes on the pitch, it does not change the whole composition.
“Ramil (Gaisin) has a big experience of playing in the number 10 and number 15 positions. He waited for his chance, and now he has got it against one of the best teams in the world. I am sure that he will not let us down.”
Pre-Match Stats Preview:
Head-To-Head –
– Russia and Ireland also met at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, with the latter emerging victorious 62-12 in Rotorua on September 25, 2011
– Ronan O’Gara scored 15 points for Ireland. Keith Earls ran in a pair of tries and Rob Kearney was also among the try scorers
– Current captain Vasily Artemyev and Denis Simplikevich scored Russia’s tries in that match. Simplikevich was making his Test debut in that match
– Ireland are the first Rugby World Cup opponents that Russia will be facing for a second time
– Apart from their RWC 2011 encounter, these teams met in one other Test, a World Cup qualifier in Krasnoyarsk on September 21, 2002. Ireland won 35-3
Ireland –
– Ireland started their 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign with a 27-3 bonus point victory over Scotland and then suffered a frustrating 19-12 defeat to tournament hosts Japan
– Ireland have not suffered back-to-back defeats at a World Cup since 2007, when they lost in succession to France and Argentina
– Ireland have participated in all eight previous World Cups and made it past the pool phase in seven of the eight. Only in 2007 did they fail to reach the knockout stages
– Ireland have picked up a bonus point in each of their first two 2019 World Cup matches. They also achieved this at RWC 2015, but then failed to pocket a bonus point in the remainder of the tournament
– Jonathan Sexton captains Ireland for the first time in his 86th Test appearance for the team
– Only Ronan O’Gara (93), David Humphreys (70) and Ralph Keyes (68) have scored more points for Ireland at the Rugby World Cup than Sexton (54)
– The trusted front row of Cian Healy, captain Rory Best and Tadhg Furlong are benched or not in the matchday 23. Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and John Ryan were the front row in a Test match once before: the 22-17 World Cup warm-up win over Wales at the Aviva Stadium last month
Russia –
– Russia have started their 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign with back-to-back defeats to Japan (30-10) and Samoa (34-9)
– Russia have lost their first six matches at the Rugby World Cup. They lost all four in 2011 and their opening two Pool A matches against Japan and Samoa this month
– Russia have lost their six World Cup matches by an average margin of 31 points. Only Fiji (1987) and France (2011) have progressed from the pool phase with two defeats
– The nine changes made between matches is the most by the Bears in World Cup history. When preparing to face Ireland at the World Cup in New Zealand eight years ago, the same opponents they are about to meet now, they made eight changes
– Denis Simplikevich joins Samoa’s George Harder and Fiji’s Rupeni Caucaunibuca as the only players to score a try in each of their first two World Cup matches against tier one opposition, without representing a tier one nation themselves. Simplikevich can become the first to do it three times
– Vasily Artemyev and Andrey Garbuzov, who both start, and replacement Vladimir Ostroushko could become the only three players to make a seventh Rugby World Cup appearance for Russia
Pre-Match Links –
Head-To-Head: Ireland v Russia
Jonathan Sexton ‘Deeply Honoured’ To Captain Ireland
In Pics: Ireland Captain’s Run In Kobe
Jean Kleyn Proud And Excited For World Cup Debut
Richie Murphy And Niall Scannell Preview Ireland v Russia
Opta Match Facts Preview: Ireland v Russia
Jordi Murphy On His World Cup Call-Up
Previous Meetings –
2002: Rugby World Cup Qualifier: Russia 3 Ireland 35, Central Stadium, Krasnoyarsk
2011: Rugby World Cup Pool C: Ireland 62 Russia 12, International Stadium, Rotorua
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