POOL C – RUSSIA vs USA
Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth, Thursday 15th Sep 7:30pm (NZT)
Head-to-head: Played 3, USA 3, Russia 0
Last meeting: USA 32 beat Russia 25 in Worcester 2011
Last meeting at a World Cup: First meeting
Team news: The USA have made three changes to the team that faced Ireland at the same venue on Sunday. Eddie O’Sullivan has replaced prop Shawn Pittman and hooker Phil Theil with Matekitonga Moeakiola and Chris Biller after the American scrum struggled against the Irish. Chris Wyles has taken the place of Blaine Scully at full-back in the other change. Russia have named a side similar to the one which faced the Americans in their last match. Konstantin Rachkov replaces Mikhail Babaev at centre and Vladimir Ostroushko and Vasily Artemyev swap wings.
Form: The defencive effort that the USA produced on Sunday really troubled the Irish, the 22-10 scoreline will please O’Sullivan and give the team a boost in what should be a tight affair. Todd Clever was the Americans best on field and his experience in top class football is showing. Russia will enter the match without a competitive outing in over a month which will definitely count against them. The excitement of their first ever World Cup match should balance that out.
Prediction: The Americans showed signs that they have been improving in the match against Ireland and will enter the game as favourites. The late try to Emerick was just reward and showed the Eagles never say die attitude. Russia’s first match at a Rugby World Cup is a great moment in rugby history and one the players will never forget it. They will have to be up for it here against a team they have never beaten. Matches have been tight and I expect this one will be no different.
USA by 8
Teams:
Russia: 15.Igor Klyuchnikov, 14.Vladimir Ostroushko, 13.Konstantin Rachkov, 12.Alexey Makovetskiy, 11.Vasily Artemyev, 10.Yury Kushnarev, 9.Alexander Shakirov, 8.Vyacheslav Grachev, 7.Artem Fatakhov, 6.Andrey Garbuzov, 5.Denis Antonov, 4.Alexander Voytov,
3.Ivan Prishchepenko, 2.Vladislav Korshunov (capt), 1.Sergey Popov.
Replacements: 16.Valery Tsnobiladze, 17.Alexander Khrokin, 18.Vladmimir Botvinnikov,
19.Adam Byrnes, 20.Victor Gresev, 21.Alexander Yanyushkin, 22.Andrey Kuzin.
USA: 15.Chris Wyles, 14.Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13.Paul Emerick, 12.Andrew Suniula,
11.James Paterson, 10.Roland Suniula, 9.Mike Petri, 8.Nic Johnson, 7.Todd Clever (capt),
6.Louis Stanfill, 5.Hayden Smith, 4.John van der Giessen, 3.Matekitonga Moeakiola,
2.Chris Biller, 1.Mike MacDonald.
Replacements: 16.Phil Thiel, 17.Shawn Pittman, 18.Scott LaValla, 19.Pat Danahy,
20.Tim Usasz, 21.Nese Malifa, 22.Blaine Scully.
By Alex Barlow-Smith