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Action from the Japan-Russia game.
Samoa will be looking to open their Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign with a win while Russia need to recover lost ground as a result of their opening-day defeat to Japan when the two sides face each other on Tuesday. The fixture will be held at the Kumagaya rugby Stadium in Saitama prefecture, just a short distance away from the capital city.
The Russians lost their opening match 30-10 to Japan on the tournament's opening day. The result may not have reflected the exact run of play as Lyn Jones’ men went 7-0 ahead within the first 5 minutes. Eventually they were unable to maintain the endurance required to hold off the Japanese attack and were soundly beaten in the second half.
They are now looking ahead to their next fixture against Samoa and will sure fancy their chances of a win given that they have a game under their belt.
In particular flanker Tagir Gadzhiev put in a relentless performance with a fantastic work rate in their opener. Kirill Golosnitskiy now holds the record for scoring the fastest try in a World Cup opener after his early conversion.
It should also be noted that the Russians qualified the tournament via a technicality when Spain, Belgium and Romania were disqualified for fielding ineligible players. Had things been different then perhaps a higher ranked team could have taken their place in Pool A.
Samoa will be looking to stamp their mark on the Rugby Union world in light of the new Nations Championship. Pacific Islands nations will be excluded from this event and the gulf between teams in the region and the sports elite will expand.
Steve Jackson’s men are unlikely to progress from the pool stages but they will surely be looking to cause an upset somewhere along the line.
Auckland born Chris Vui will skipper his side and is likely to assume his usual position at lock. He has made 14 appearances for Samoa since pledging allegiance back in 2016.
Both sides will consider this match their only probable chance of putting points on the board. Russia may be somewhat rugged and exhausted from a physical opening game with Japan on Friday 20th while Samoa head in to the game fresh and prepared.
