8 Oct 2019
A Must Win For Scotland
In what is proving to be a hotly contested Pool A, Scotland, Japan and Ireland all stand a realistic chance of progressing to the knockout stages, though it will largely rest on the final match between Japan and Scotland, providing the Six Nations side are victorious over the Russians and will most likely require a bonus point victory, too.
Gregor Townsend has however decided to get behind his second-string side to get the job done over the Russians in a risky ploy of making 14 changes from their comfortable 34-0 demolition of Samoa.
Winger Darcy Graham is the only man to retain his place as Townsend feels Samoa’s physicality warranted a rest for his star men, who he’ll need in fine fettle in what is likely to be a winner takes all encounter with hosts Japan in the final group game.
With this in mind, Townsend’s message is very clear: A bonus point victory and nothing less will do. The message will have been drilled into this team and we fully expect them to deliver on that against a Russia side who have been underwhelming this tournament.
What’s more, this Scotland side will be relishing the opportunity to gain a starting spot in Townsend’s side for the knockouts, should they make it that far.
Scotland -33 Handicap
Scotland’s 34-0 dismissal of Samoa in their last outing means they have now won four of their last six matches against Tier 2 opposition by a margin of 34 points or more.
Russia are rarely tested against Tier 1 sides, but on the five occasions they have faced such calibre of opposition this decade, they have lost by at least 35 points in each, including an 85-15 drubbing at the hands of Italy back in August and unlike the Scots, they have very little to play for, so we’re happy to back the favourites at an alternative handicap of -33.5.
Blair Kinghorn To Score Anytime
Blair Kinghorn makes his first appearance of this World Cup and with seven tries from his 11 starts, he should fancy his chances of touching down. In fact, excluding matches against France and Wales he has four tries from his last three starts coming against Georgia (twice) and Italy, while he is almost guaranteed to get the full 80 minutes with their only replacements being scrum half Henry Pyrgos and centre Chris Harris.
SCOTLAND V RUSSIA TEAMS
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 (captain), 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 (captain), 14 German Davydov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Vladislav Sozonov, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 9 Dimitry 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.
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