Scotland plays Russia on Wednesday 9 October at the Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa. 16:15pm local time (3:15 ET). In the U.S, the match may be viewed on-demand on NBC Sports Gold and on TSN 1 and 4 in Canada.
Scotland opened the RWC with a 27-3 loss to Ireland and followed with a 34-0 win over Samoa. Russia looking to end pool play with its first win following a 30-10 loss to Japan, a 34-9 loss to Samoa, and a 35-0 loss to Ireland.
Scotland can still qualify for the Cup quarterfinals with bonus-point wins against both Russia and Japan.
Scotland
Head Coach Gregor Townsend has made 14 changes in the starting XV with only Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham retained from the side that beat Samoa.
All eight players that were reserves against Samoa will start. These include Fraser Brown, Scott Cummings, Zander Fagerson, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Gordon Reid, Duncan Taylor, and Ryan Wilson.
Full-back Blair, center Pete Horne, lock Ben Toolis, and hooker George Turner gain their first start, while Henry Pyrgos, an injury replacement is a reserve.
Wing Tommy Seymour and back-row John Barclay complete the starting side.
Expect many changes for Scotland’s concluding pool match against Japan.
Russia
Head Coach Lyn Jones made nine changes for Russia’s final match.
Prop Kirill Gotovtsev, flanker Tagir Gadzhiev, wing German Davydov and full-back and captain Vasily Artemyev will make their fourth starts of Rugby World Cup 2019, while half-backs Dmitry Perov and Ramil Gaisin are retained from the defeat by Ireland.
Artemyev has started all eight of Russia’s Rugby World Cup matches since their RWC 2011 debut in New Zealand. He has captained Russia for a record 34th time and his 29 test tries are a record for the Bears.
Centre Vladimir Ostroushko will also be making his eighth RWC appearance. Lock Andrey Garbuzov would join Artemyev and Ostroushko in the eight-cap club if he comes off the bench on Wednesday.
Squads
Scotland: 1. Gordon Reid 2. George Turner 3. Zander Fagerson 4. Scott Cummings 5. Ben Toolis 6. John Barclay (Capt.) 7. Fraser Brown 8. Ryan Wilson 9. George Horne 10. Adam Hastings 11. Darcy Graham 12. Pete Horne (Vice capt.) 13. Duncan Taylor 14. Tommy Seymour 15. Blair Kinghorn 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: 1. Valery Morozov 2. Stanislav Selskii 3. Kirill Gotovtsev 4. Andrey Ostrikov 5. Evgeny Elgin 6. Vitaly Zhivatov 7. Tagir Gadzhiev 8. Nikita Vavilin 9. Dmitry Perov 10. Ramil Gaisin 11. Vladislav Sozonov 12. Dmitry Gerasimov 13. Vladimir Ostroushko 14. German Davydov 15. Vasily Artemyev (capt.) 16. Sergey Chernyshev 17. Azamat Bitiev 18. Vladimir Podrezov 19. Bogdan Fedotko 20. Andrey Garbuzov 21. Sergey Ianiushkin 22. Anton Sychev 23. Yury Kushnarev
Other Articles
DJCoil Rugby articles by Doug Coil are also available on Facebook. Other Social Media sites to follow or subscribe include Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for interviews.