Russia coach Lyn Jones names his team to face Japan
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Russia coach Lyn Jones has named his team for the Pool A match against Japan at Tokyo Stadium on Friday, 20 September.
Russia's RWC 2019 squad has nine players who were called up for their maiden RWC campaign in 2011. Of the nine, seven played at RWC 2011 and Igor Galinovskiy and Andrey Ostrikov still need to make their debut in the tournament. The latter is starting at number four for Russia in this match.
Vasily Artemyev will captain the side from fullback and is one of four players to have featured in all four of Russia's 2011 Rugby World Cup games. Andrey Garbuzov, Victor Gresev and Vladimir Ostroushko also played in all four of Russia's matches at RWC 2011.
Artemyev and Ostroushko are starting and Garbuzov is on the bench. Gresev is not on the match-day squad.
The aforementioned four and Evgeny Matveev were also in the match-day 23 in Russia's previous World Cup match, a 68-22 defeat against Australia on 1 October, 2011.
Yury Kushnarev will be making a 110th test appearance and extend the Russia national team record. Victor Gresev, the only other Bears centurion, is not in the Bears' match-day squad.
Valery Morozov (Sale Sharks) and Andrey Ostrikov (FC Grenoble) are both starting and are the only players in the Bears' 31-man squad that are attached to a rugby club outside of Russia.
None of the 23 players selected by Russia has ever been in a side that has won an international match against Japan.
Japan v Russia Line ups:
