Samoa make their first appearance in the 2019 Rugby World Cup finals with a Pool A clash against Russia at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium on Tuesday.
Russia v Samoa, Tuesday 24th September, Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, KO 12:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Kumagaya Rugby Stadium
Referee: Romain Poite
Assistant Referees: Jerome Garces, Brendon Pickerill
TMO: Graham Hughes
Russia
Russia were involved in the opening match of the tournament against host nation Japan on Friday and they went down 30-10. The rank outsiders had been given a 40 point start on the handicap by the bookmakers so they in that regard they exceeded expectations. Russia scored the opening try of the tournament through Kiril Golosnitskiy which was subsequently converted and they held the lead until just before half time when Japan scored the second their 4 tries to go 12-7 up.
Russia's only points in the second half came from a penalty on the hour mark and they looked to run out of steam as the match entered the final quarter.
Russia came through qualifying to reach these finals although they benefited from points deductions for Romania and Spain for rules transgressions. Their only previous apperance in the finals came in New Zealand in 2011 when they lost all 4 of their matches, scoring 57 points in total and conceding 196. With pool favourites Ireland and Scotland to face they face the prospect of returning home empty handed unless they can spring a surprise here.
Samoa
Samoa and ranked 16th in the world and they came through qualifying in Oceania and then booked their place in the finals with two comfortable wins over Germany in the play offs. Their preparations included the Pacific Nations Cup where they beat Tonga (25-17) and lost to USA (13-10) and Fiji (10-3) and most recently they lost a warm up to Australia in Sydney (34-15).
Samoa have made it to the quarter finals twice from 7 attempts although the most recent of those came in 1995. In RWC 2015 Samoa also came up Scotland (lost 36-33) and Japan (lost 26-5) and their only win came against USA (25-16).
Pre-tournament Samoa were trading at around 200/1 to top this pool.
Line Ups
Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev (c), 14 German Davydov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Vasily Dorofeev, 8 Nikita Vavilin, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Vitaly Zhivatov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 4 Andrey Ostrikov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Valery Morozov
Replacements: 16 Evgeny Matveev, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Azamat Bitiev, 19 Andrey Garbuzov, 20 Anton Sychev, 21 Dmitry Perov, 22 Ramil Gaisin, 23 Vladislav Sozonov
Samoa: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Ahsee Tuala, 13 Alapati Leiua, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Ed Fidow, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Dwayne Polataivao, 8 Afaesetiti Amosa, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Chris Vui (c), 5 Kane Le’aupepe, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 3 Michael Alaalatoa, 2 Motu Matu’u, 1 Logovii Mulipola
Replacements: 16 Ray Niuia, 17 Paul Alo-Emile, 18 Jordan Lay, 19 Senio Toleafoa, 20 Josh Tyrell, 21 Melani Matavao, 22 AJ Alatimu, 23 Henry Taefu
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Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between these two nations.
Betting - Handicap
Russia +29.5 points at 9/10
Samoa-29.5 points at 9/10
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Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
Betting Angle
It is a big ask for the Russians to come out and perform at their best just a few days after putting up a better than expected fight against Japan. They looked to be tiring towards the end of the game and I am expecting a sharp drop off from them in the 2nd half this week and will back the fresher Samoans to win the 2nd half by 17 points or more.
Bet: 2 units Samoa -16.5 2nd half handicap at 9/10 Sunbet
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