RWC Pool A Preview – Ireland vs Russia

Ireland will have an ideal opportunity to bounce back from their shock defeat to Japan when they take on Russia in a Pool A match in Kobe on Thursday. The Rugby World Cup was thrown for a loop by the result and suddenly all points are required by the men in green not only to stay in the Quarter Finals but to possibly secure top spot in the pool.

With Russia being one of the lesser lights of the competition, Joe Schmidt has taken the opportunity to rest the majority of his top players though the return of Jonny Sexton is a notable exception. He will captain the side that also includes Rob Kearney at fullback while Garry Ringrose starts his third consecutive match at outside center.

The forwards feature the first appearance of Jordi Murphy after his sudden call-up due to Jack Conan’s unfortunate injury. Peter O’Mahony and Rhys Ruddock complete an experienced back row unit while controversial selection Jean Kleyn gets his first appearance of the tournament in the second row.

Lyn Jones has also made changes to his Russia side, nine in all with five coming up front. Andrei Polivalov and Evgeny Matveev come into the first row with Andrei Garbozev replacing Andrei Ostrikov in the second. Anton Sychev takes over at openside flanker and centurion Viktor Gresev makes his tournament bow at No8.

There is a new halfback combination in Dmitri Perov and Ramil Gaisin, while Kirill Golosnitskiy switches to the midfield to partner Igor Galinovski. The imposing figure of Denis Simplikevich is named on the left wing. On the bench there is a 6-2 split as Roman Khodin is included for extra back row cover.

It’s been eight years since the two sides last met at RWC 2011 in Rotorua. Ireland were decisive victors on that day, and also in their only previous meeting, a RWC Qualifier match in Krasnoyarsk in 2002. Emerging Ireland blanked the Russians 66-0 in 2014, while more notably Irish provincial unit Connacht defeated the Bears 42-14 just a month ago in Moscow.

That last result is the most telling. This is not a Russian side that can compete against Ireland’s class, even without several of their best players. The Bears can expect the men in green to put on a performance similar to that seen by Scotland against Samoa, if not more lopsided.

Kickoff is set for 7:15pm local time, 3:15am Pacific, 6:15am Eastern, 7:15am in Rio de la Plata. Live broadcasts will be available on ESPN 3 in Latin and South America, NBC Sports Network in the USA, and TSN channels 1 and 4 in Canada.

IRELAND
1 David Kilcoyne, 2 Niall Scannell, 3 John Ryan, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 5 Jean Kleyn, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 7 Peter O’Mahony, 8 Jordi Murphy, 9 Luke McGrath, 10 Jonathan Sexton (capt.), 11 Keith Earls, 12 Bundee Aki, 13 Garry Ringrose, 14 Andrew Conway, 15 Rob Kearney

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 CJ Stander, 21 Joey Carbery, 22 Jack Carty, 23 Jordan Larmour

RUSSIA
1 Andrei Polivalov, 2 Evgeny Matveev, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 4 Andrei Garbuzov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 6 Anton Sychev, 7 Tagir Gazhiev, 8 Viktor Gresev, 9 Dmitri Perov, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 11 Denis Simplikevich, 12 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 13 Igor Galinovski, 14 German Davydov, 15 Vasili Artemyev (capt.)

Replacements: 16 Stanislav Selskiy, 17 Valeri Morozov, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Andrei Ostrikov, 20 Evgeny Elgin, 21 Sergei Yanyushkin, 22 Roman Khodin, 23 Vladimir Ostroushko

Date: Thursday, October 3
Kick-Off: 19:15 local (03:15 Pacific, 06:15 Eastern, 07:15 Rio de la Plata)
Venue: Misaki Stadium, Kobe
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistants: Mathieu Raynal (France) & Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Broadcasts: ESPN 3 (Latin / South America), NBCSN (USA), TSN 1/4 (Canada)