The race for Rugby World Cup quarter final places from Pool A resumes on Wednesday when Scotland will be targeting a wide margin win over Russia in Shizuoka
Scotland v Russsia, Wednesday 9th October, Shizuoka , KO 09:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Shizuoka
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (Fraance)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Scotland
Scotland come into the game in third place in this pool with a total of 5 log points from 2 matches. Host nation Japan have 14 points and Ireland have 11 but this is Scotland's game in hand on the top 2. After this Scotland will face off with Japan in the final pool match which could well be a virtual eliminator. Odds of around 11/8 are available for Scotland to reach the quarter finals and a bonus point win here will be the order of the day.
After losing their opening match of the tournament 27-3 to Ireland the Scots put themselves on the board with a 34-0 victory over Samoa in their second outing. Maitland and Laidlaw scored first half tries (half time 20-0) and 2 penalty tries in the second period secured the extra log point as Scotland covered a pre-match betting handicap which had been set in the late teens.
Russia
This is Russia's final match of the tournament and a last chance to open their log points account after 3 defeats but they have been worth following in terms of betting handicaps. Most recently they were given more than 50 points start by the bookmakers for a clash with Ireland, a game they lost 35-0 (half time 21-0).
Russia were given a 30 point start for their clash with Samoa. They led 6-5 at half time as Samoa picked up a couple of yellow cards but the Russians ran out of steam in the second period and eventually lost 34-9.
In their opening game Russia were given a 40 point start against Japan, they went into the half time break just 12-7 in arrears before eventually losing 30-10.
Russia's only previous appearance in the RWC finals came in New Zealand in 2011 when they lost all 4 of their matches
Line Ups
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Duncan Taylor, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Darcy Graham, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Fraser Brown, 6 John Barclay (c), 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Scott Cummings, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 George Turner, 1 Gordon Reid
Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Simon Berghan, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Magnus Bradbury, 21 Jamie Ritchie, 22 Henry Pyrgos, 23 Chris Harris
Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev (c), 14 German Davydov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Vladislav Sozonov, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 9 Dmitry Perov, 8 Nikita Vavilin, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Vitaly Zhivatov, 5 Evgeny Elgin, 4 Andrey Ostrikov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Valery Morozov
Replacements: 16 Sergey Chernyshev, 17 Azamat Bitiev, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Bogdan Fedotko, 20 Andrey Garbuzov, 21 Sergey Ianiushkin, 22 Anton Sychev, 23 Yury Kushnarev
Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between these nations.
Early Betting - Handicap
Scotland -35.5 points at 9/10
Russia +35.5 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
Scotland have wrung the changes ahead of the do or die clash against Japan. They should still have plenty in the tank to beat Russia who have played better than I expected but have not got the quality to score enough points against Scotland to trouble them.
I can see a fast start by Scotland followed by a stepping off the gas once they have secured the bonus point. With the handicap looking well set I am going for a market I seldom touch namely the highest scoring half.
Sunbet have the 1st half at 1.28/1 and if Scotland do get to a point they decide to shut up shop with bigger goals in mind then it looks a lively runner.
Bet: 2 units Highest Scoring half – 2nd at 1.28/1 at Sunbet
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