Russia's bizarre journey to the Rugby World Cup 2019

When Kirill Golosnitskiy scored the first try of the Rugby World Cup last night for Russia, it marked the culmination of a long and bizarre journey the nation took on their way to the global tournament.

After narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 2015 World Cup where they lost to Uruguay on aggregate, Russia began preparations for the qualifiers as part of the 2019 World Cup. They found themselves in a qualifying group with Belgium, Germany, Romania and Spain – not exactly the biggest names of international or even European rugby.

With the top team punching their tickets to the tournament and the runner-up entering a playoff, Russia must have fancied their chances.

However, Russia finished the group stage level with a record of four wins and four losses, a respectable total but one that left them a distant third behind Romania (6 wins, 2 losses) and Spain (6 wins, 1 loss) before the final game of the tournament.

Spain only had to beat Belgium (1 win, 6 losses ) to top the group and earn their way to the World Cup. Shockingly, with the controversy surrounding the Romanian referee who oversaw the match, Belgium pulled off the upset, meaning Romania were advancing directly to the World Cup.

Spain were understandably none too pleased and after weeks of accusations and demands from both the Spanish and Romanian camps, the organizing body found itself looking into claims that all five nations in the group had been fielding ineligible players.

While Russia and Germany were cleared, Belgium, Romania and Spain were all found to have violated the regulations and were penalized 30, 30 and 40 points respectively. This miraculous sequence of events led to Russia topping the group that also saw Germany earning a place in the playoffs.

Russia finally reached their intended destination yesterday as they fought Japan to a 30-10 loss in the first match of the 2019 World Cup. While the result may not have been what they had hoped for, the team can look forward to their matches against Samoa, Ireland and Scotland.

Certainly, they can take heart from their slim chances of qualifying from the group, with the knowledge that this journey to Japan could quite easily never have come to fruition.