Chile complete impressive comeback win over Russia in Sochi

Chile completed an impressive comeback earlier today against Russia. The South Americans overcame a 17-10 half-time deficit to complete a 30-29 win. Santiago Videla was the hero; the fullback slotted the winning penalty with time up on the match clock.

The match is a rarity; Chile and Russia had only met once prior to today’s fixture. The 2017 match was very different. On that occasion Russia were notably superior to Los Cóndores, winning 42-11. Changes between then and now have resulted in Chile being a team on the rise.

Russia played in Rugby World Cups 2011 and 2019. Chile has never qualified, though Los Cóndores are now closer than ever before. Chile eliminated Canada during the Americas’ qualifiers. The outcome for Chile is a series against the USA in July 2022. The winner of that will qualify for RWC 2023. The loser will enter the Repechage.

A win today over Russia underlines that Chile is well placed indeed. Chile’s head coach, Pablo Lemoine, coached Uruguay to RWC 2015. His team were beaten on the road by Russia.

Chile scored the first and last points today against Russia. They came from the boot of fullback Santiago Videla. His strong day included 100% goal-kicking accuracy. He got Chile on the board with a 5th minute penalty.

Russia hit back with two tries. The first was against the run of play. A loose ball ended with a good run and score from center Kirill Golosnitskiy. Fly half Ramil Gaisin converted from just inside the touchline. Then Chile lost Nicolás Garafulic to a yellow card and scrum-half Konstantin Uzunov scored from a tap penalty.

The 14-man Cóndores scored next. Fly half Rodrigo Fernández followed on from his strong showing against Canada to run in a try for Chile. He finished off strong work from the forwards and quick hands from the backs. Videla converted to make it 14-10 to Russia.

Russia had the final say of the first half. Gaisin landed a regulation penalty in the final act of the half. With it Russia held a 17-10 lead.

Chile scored first in the second half. The scrum was performing well for the South Americans. An advancing scrum gave No8 Raimundo Martínez a solid platform to break off from a dot the ball down in the try zone. Videla added the extras to level the scores.

Gaisin restored Russia’s lead with a 58th minute penalty. Four minutes latter he landed another to give the Bears a six point lead. Videla canceled out the second with a long-range strike of his own. Gaisin then added two more to put Russia 29-20 ahead.

Chile were down by nine points with ten minutes left to play. They needed to touch down in the try zone. Hard work from the forwards saw Russia’s defensive line focused on shutting down opportunities. Chile then used width to send an unmarked Iñaki Ayarza over for a try.

Videla’s conversion made it a two point deficit. Then, with the game clock past the 80n minute mark, Chile were attacking in the Russian half. They won a penalty to give Videla one final kick at goal. He needed no invitation to land the historic goal. It gave Chile a 30-29 win and a second consecutive win over a RWC competitor.

The team’s meet again on Friday. Game two will also been in Sochi. Today’s result will see Chile rising in the rankings and see the Eagles taking notes ahead of the Americas 2 deciding series in July.

 

SCORING

RUSSIA 29
Tries – K. Golosnitskiy (18′), K. Uzunov (34′)
Cons – R. Gaisin 2/2 (19′, 35′)
Pens – R. Gaisin 5/5 (40′, 58′, 62′, 67′, 71′)

CHILE 30
Tries – R. Fernández (38′), R. Martínez (55′), I. Ayarza (75′)
Cons – S. Videla 3/3 (39′, 56′, 76′)
Pens – S. Videla 3/3 (4′, 65′, 80′)
YC – N. Garafulic (34′)

 

TEAMS

RUSSIA
1 Evgeny Mishechkin (17 Valeri Morozov HT), 2 Dmitri Parkhomenko (16 Alexander Ivanov 65′), 3 Vladimir Podrezov (18 Anton Drozdov HT), 4 Alexander Ilin, 5 German Silenko, 6 Vitali Zhivatov (capt.), 7 Anton Sychev (20 Ivan Chepraga 73′), 8 Nikita Vavilin, 9 Konstantin Uzunov (21 Denis Barabantsev 78′), 10 Ramil Gaisin, 11 Daniil Potikhanov, 12 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 13 Denis Semikov, 14 Andrey Karzanov, 15 Alexey Golov

Not used: 19 Egor Zykov, 22 Pavel Kirillov, 23 Gleb Farkov

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco (17 Salvador Lues 70′), 2 Tomás Dussaillant (16 Augusto Böhme 58′), 3 Matías Dittus (18 Iñaki Gurruchaga 70′), 4 Augusto Sarmiento, 5 Javier Eissmann (19 Clemente Saavedra HT), 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Thomas Orchard (20 Alfonso Escobar 62′), 8 Raimundo Martínez, 9 Nicolás Herreros (23 Marcelo Torrealba HT), 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Iñaki Ayarza, 12 Matías Garafulic, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Santiago Videla

Not used: 21 Pablo Casas, 22 José Ignacio Larenas

 

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland)
Assistants: Adam Jones (Wales) & Manuel Bottino (Italy)
TMO: Sean Brickell (Wales)