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Russia and Namibia have named their sides for the first game of a two-match series to be played at Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday. Namibia have made four changes to the side that lost to Spain in the Nations Cup on June 21, with Russia changing five from their team that beat Portugal in the European Nations Cup on March 21.
For the Welwitschias, Jaco Engels replaces Johan Coetzee at loosehead prop, and captain Jacques Burger is recalled in the back row in place of P.J. van Lill. Eugene Jantjies takes over from Eneill Buitendag at scrumhalf, and Johan Deysel is in the midfield at the expense of J.C. Greyling.
Buitendag and Nico Esterhuyse were named in the side earlier in the week but have dropped out due to injury and will be replaced by Arthur Bouwer and Janco Venter respectively. Super Rugby veterans Torsten van Jaarsveld, Renaldo Bothma, and Chrysander Botha are included in reserves.
Russia have promoted Stanislav Selskiy from the bench to replace injured Vladislav Korshunov at hooker, and moved Pavel Butenko into the second row to hand Dimitri Krotov his first test start. Alexei Panasenko drops to the bench.
Yuri Kushnarev moves to flyhalf, with Ramil Gaisin dropping out and Anton Ryabov selected at fullback. Andrei Otrokov and and Igor Galinovski replace Mikhail Babaev and Igor Kurashov on the wings. Uncapped players Vladimir Podrezov, Daniel Chegodaev, Evgeni Kolomiytsev, and Alex Mikhaltsov are included in the reserves.
Namibia have played Russia on two previous occasions, losing 31-12 in 1994 and 30-15 in 2010. Both were played in Windhoek.
Namibia are in Pool C at the World Cup, together with Argentina, Georgia, New Zealand, and Tonga. Russia did not qualify for the tournament, losing to Uruguay in the repechage.
NAMIBIA
1 Jaco Engels 2 D.G. Wiese 3 Casper Viviers 4 Tjiuee Uanivi 5 Janco Venter 6 Jacques Burger (capt.) 7 Thomasau Forbes 8 Tinus du Plessis 9 Eugene Jantjies 10 Theuns Kotzé 11 Russell van Wyk 12 Johan Deysel 13 Danie van Wyk 14 David Philander 15 Johann Tromp
16 Torsten van Jaarsveld 17 Raoul Larson 18 A.J. de Klerk 19 Renaldo Bothma 20 Rohan Kitshoff 21 Arthur Bouwer 22 J.C. Greyling 23 Chrysander Botha
RUSSIA
1 Alexei Volkov 2 Stanislav Selskiy 3 Innokenty Zykov 4 Andrei Garbuzov 5 Pavel Butenko 6 Andrei Temnov (capt.) 7 Dimitri Krotov 8 Viktor Gresev 9 Alexei Shcherban 10 Yuri Kushnarev 11 Andrei Otrokov 12 Vladimir Rudenko 13 Dimitri Gerasimov 14 Igor Galinovski 15 Anton Ryabov
16 Evgeni Matveev 17 Vladimir Podrezov 18 Evgeni Pronenko 19 Alexei Panasenko 20 Daniel Chegodaev 21 Rushan Yagudin 22 Evgeni Kolomiytsev 23 Alex Mikhaltsov
