Russia national rugby union team

The Russia national rugby union team (Russian: Сборная России по регби, Sbornaya Rossii po regbi) represents Russia in men's international rugby union international competitions, nicknamed the Bears, is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia (RUR). The RUR is considered the official successor union of the Soviet Union by World Rugby and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s. Since 1992, the team has played as Russia. Its first test match as Russia was against the Barbarians in Moscow in June 1992 and the country's first test against an official Test nation was against Belgium later that same year.

Russia

Nickname(s)	Медведи (The Bears)
Emblem	Russian bear
Union	Rugby Union of Russia
Head coach	Lyn Jones
Captain	Andrey Garbuzov
Most caps	Yuri Kushnarev (114)
Top scorer	Yuri Kushnarev (777)
Top try scorer	Vyacheslav Grachev (31)
Home stadium	Sochi Central Stadium
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	20 (as of 23 November 2020)
Highest	16 (2012)
Lowest	26 (2005)
First international
Russia 27–23 Barbarian F.C. (Moscow, Russia; 6 June 1992)
Biggest win
Denmark 7–104 Russia (Copenhagen, Denmark; 13 May 2000)
Biggest defeat
Japan 75–3 Russia (Tokyo, Japan; 6 November 2010)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 2011)
Best result	Pool stage, 2011, 2019
Website	www.rugby.ru

Russia is seen as a Tier 2 union by World Rugby.[1] The team's regular international competition is in the Rugby Europe Championship – often referred to as the Six Nations B. In addition, the team participates in World Rugby-run summer tournaments including the Nations Cup, the dormant Churchill Cup, and other international fixtures.

Russia competed in their first Rugby World Cup (RWC) in New Zealand in 2011 after qualifying as Europe 2 through their second-place finish in the 2009–10 ENC. Russia played in Pool C and finished fifth, scoring one point. Previous qualification campaigns saw elimination to Portugal ahead of the 2007 tournament and expulsion from 2003 qualifying for breaches of eligibility rules. The team also unsuccessfully attempted to qualify for the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups. They competed in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan by qualifying as Europe 1 as a result of Spain, Romania and Belgium being eliminated.

History

Georgia v. Russia, 24 March 2007

The Rugby Union of the Soviet Union was founded in 1936, although the national side did not play its first official international until 1974.

The Soviet Union took time to establish itself, but by the mid-1980s was regularly beating the likes of Italy and Romania. The team was invited to the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, but declined on political grounds, not least the continued IRB membership of apartheid South Africa.[2]

Following the breakup of the USSR, Russian players played for the interim Commonwealth of Independent States team, which played four matches during 1991 and 1992.

The first game played by the new Russian national team took place on June 6, 1992, when Russia beat the Barbarians 27–23. Russia's first game against a full IRB member was versus Belgium four months later in the 1992/4 FIRA-AER European Trophy. That edition of the tournament saw Russia secure its first, and to-date only, win over Georgia. Russia continued to participate until realignment of FIRA-AER competitions in 2000.

The Russian national side has since played its regular competitive rugby in FIRA-AER's European Nations Cup, the second level mirror tournament to the Six Nations. Russia replaced Morocco in the top tier in 2001 after a team-record nine-game win streak and have stayed there ever since. The Russian side has yet to win the title, but has come close with second-place finishes twice, in the 2009 and the 2007-8 editions. It also secured second place in the 2009–10 combined table used in Rugby World Cup qualification.

In addition, as part of attempts to secure regular international fixtures the team has played in the now-defunct Superpowers Cup, winning the tournament once, the Nations Cup, the Churchill Cup, and most recently the IRB's International Rugby Series. The Russian side has also played representative teams including England Counties, France's equivalent side, South African Super Rugby youth and university sides, and New Zealand club teams as it seeks to vary and improve the quality of opposition.

The RUR has been attempting to gain greater participation in the autumn test window, and is now being integrated into World Rugby's global test match schedule.[1]

Rugby World Cup

World Cup record

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Declined invitation								-
1991	Did not enter								Did not enter
1995	Did not qualify								4	3	0	1	125	49
1999									4	1	0	3	85	92
2003	Banned								6	5	0	1	176	114
2007	Did not qualify								14	6	1	7	382	323
2011	Pool Stage	4	0	0	4	57	196		10	7	1	2	291	175
2015	Did not qualify								12	7	0	5	269	300
2019	Pool Stage	4	0	0	4	19	160		10	4	0	6	249	201
Total	2/9	8	0	0	8	76	356		50	29	2	19	1328	1053

Early qualifying attempts (1987 – 2007)

The Soviet Union declined to take up its invite to take part in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup on the basis of the IRB membership by apartheid South Africa.[3] The Soviet Rugby Union was not an IRB member in time for 1991 Rugby World Cup qualifying.

In qualifying for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the first in which the national side was involved, Russia came through preliminary qualifying with wins over Poland and Georgia, before beating Germany but losing to Romania for the Eastern Europe spot.

In European qualifying for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Russia finished fourth in Pool 1 in Round B, which was not enough to progress from a group also including Italy, Georgia, Croatia, and Denmark.

The Russian national side was expelled from qualifying for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, due to eligibility issues. Spain, who Russia had beaten in qualifying, protested the fielding of three South African-born players (Johan Hendriks, Reiner Volschenck and Werner Pieterse), whom the RUR claimed had qualified through ancestry. However, the RUR did not produce documentation deemed acceptable by the IRB, and Spain were re-instated in qualification in Russia's place.[4]

In 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying, Russia came through European qualifying to a mini-group stage where they were pooled with Italy and Portugal. The winner would qualify directly and the second place team would continue the qualification process, with the third-placed team eliminated. After both losing heavily to Italy, Portugal and Russia met to determine progression to qualifying round 5. Russia lost the match, played in Lisbon, 26–23 and dropped out.

2011

Russia qualified for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand as Europe 2 after finishing second in the 2008–10 European Nations Cup. This marked the team's World Cup debut, with Russia becoming the 25th side to play at the tournament, where they faced Australia, Ireland, Italy and the United States in Group C of the tournament.[5]

Despite losing all four of their games, most disappointingly a narrow defeat to the US in its opening fixture in which the Bears scored a bonus point, Russia's debut was generally viewed as a success, as the team scored the most tries (8) by a debutant in the professional era, and the most since Western Samoa in 1991, and becoming the first side to score three tries against Australia in a World Cup match since 1987.

	Match Results
	Date	Opponent	Score	Venue
	15 Sep 2011	United States	6–13	Stadium Taranaki, New Plymouth
	20 Sep 2011	Italy	17–53	Trafalgar Park, Nelson
	25 Sep 2011	Ireland	12–62	International Stadium, Rotorua
	1 Oct 2011	Australia	22–68	Trafalgar Park, Nelson

2015

The Russian national rugby union team finished third in European qualifying for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The top two teams in the final group— Georgia and Romania — immediately qualified for the 2015 tournament. Russia, as third-place finisher in the final group, faced Uruguay in a home-and-away two-game playoff. Uruguay won on aggregate and secured the 20th and final qualifying spot for the 2015 tournament, with Russia failing to qualify.

2019

The Russian national rugby union team once again finished third in European qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. However, after a controversial game played by Belgium and Spain (which was originally intended to be replayed), the issue of three teams in the group stage fielding ineligible players (Belgium, Romania, and Spain) was investigated by World Rugby and Rugby Europe. It was determined that all three teams had violated eligibility rules and gained an unfair advantage (both Romania and Spain defeated Russia by slim margins) and were sanctioned, and thus, Russia advanced as the automatic qualifier, with Germany headed to the repechage against Portugal.

European Nations Cup

As the Soviet Union, the side secured four straight silvers (all behind France and ahead of Italy and Romania) during the 1980s, and a further three bronzes.

Russia first played the FIRA Trophy in the 1992–94 season. Since 2000, Russia's primary international competition is the European Nations Cup, administered by Rugby Europe and played, by-and-large, during the Six Nations international release window in February and March. Russia won the inaugural Division 2 competition, winning promotion to the top tier in 2000, where they have remained ever since.

Since realignment, Russia has secured two runners-up spots and three third-place finishes, in doing so claiming the third-highest number of wins, the third-highest win percentage, and the third-lowest number of losses, in each case placing below Georgia and Romania.

In the 2011-12 season, Russia finished fourth with five wins and five losses. In the 2013-14 season, the team finished third with six wins and four losses. In the 2015-16 season, the Bears again claimed six wins and four losses to finish third. In the 2017 season, Russia finished fourth with two wins and three losses.

Current players

Russia has traditionally fielded squads consisting near-entirely of players from its own professional league, but as players gain exposure, several players have represented their country while playing club rugby overseas, including Vasily Artemyev, the first Russian to play in the Aviva Premiership and locks Andrei Ostrikov, and Kirill Kulemin.

Former Melbourne Rebels lock Adam Byrnes, who qualified for Russia through maternal lineage, is the only foreign-born player to have played for the Bears in recent years.

Current squad

Russia`s squad for the 2020 Rugby Europe Championship.

Head Coach: Lyn Jones

• Caps Updated: 28 February 2020

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Evgeny Matveev	Hooker	15 April 1985	64	VVA-Podmoskovye
Shamil Magomedov	Hooker	17 April 1987	3	Enisey-STM
Denis Mashkin	Hooker	19 February 1997	0	Enisey-STM
Kirill Gotovtsev	Prop	17 July 1987	8	Krasny Yar
Azamat Bitiev	Prop	9 December 1989	24	Krasny Yar
Valery Morozov	Prop	21 September 1995	23	Sale Sharks
Vladimir Podrezov	Prop	27 January 1994	30	VVA-Podmoskovye
Evgeny Mishechkin	Prop	27 July 1997	14	Slava Moskva
Alexey Scobyola	Prop	8 August 1991	0	Slava Moskva
Evgeny Elgin	Lock	10 March 1987	29	Enisey-STM
Nikita Bekov	Lock	4 March 1996	1	RC Massy
Yegor Zykov	Lock	11 January 1993	2	VVA-Podmoskovye
Tagir Gadzhiev	Back row	29 March 1994	31	VVA-Podmoskovye
Nikita Vavilin	Back row	13 May 1994	14	Slava Moskva
Victor Gresev	Back row	31 March 1986	102	Locomotiv Penza
Patris Peki	Back row	19 October 1995	4	VVA-Podmoskovye
Anton Sychev	Back row	5 February 1994	20	Metallurg
Vitaly Zhivatov	Back row	16 February 1992	15	VVA-Podmoskovye
Alexey Sherban	Scrum-half	17 November 1990	48	Enisey-STM
Konstantin Uzunov	Scrum-half	19 April 1994	15	Enisey-STM
Vasily Dorofeev	Scrum-half	6 August 1990	25	Krasny Yar
Yuri Kushnarev	Fly-half	6 June 1985	114	Krasny Yar
Ramil Gaisin	Fly-half	26 July 1991	51	Enisey-STM
Alexandr Budychenko	Fly-half	9 September 1997	9	Enisey-STM
Vladimir Ostroushko	Centre	30 September 1986	50	RC Kuban
Dmitry Gerasimov	Centre	16 April 1988	70	Enisey-STM
Kirill Golosnitsky	Centre	30 May 1994	15	VVA-Podmoskovye
Stanislav Bondarev	Centre	29 September 1988	1	RC Kuban
Vladislav Sozonov	Wing	9 October 1993	13	VVA-Podmoskovye
Daniil Potikhanov	Wing	30 November 1999	1	VVA-Podmoskovye
German Godlyuk	Fullback	11 August 1992	3	VVA-Podmoskovye
Nikita Churashov	Fullback	11 February 1996	2	Enisey-STM

Coaching staff

The current head coach is ex-Neath RFC flanker Lyn Jones.

Former head coach is Alexander Pervukhin, who returned to the position following a long break retains strong links to 2016 Russian Rugby Premier League Champions Enisei-STM in Krasnoyarsk.

Prior to Pervukhin, former Wales flanker Kingsley Jones was the most recent coach, with Siua Taumalolo and Darren Morris his assistants. He left in 2014 to take up a coaching role with the Newport Gwent Dragons in Wales. Raphaël Saint-André, brother of French coach Philippe Saint-André, then coached the team for the final two matches of the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying matches against Uruguay.

Coaching staff

Name	With	Backs	Forwards	Strength & Conditioning Coach	Dates
Alexander Pervukhin					2006–2008
Claude Saurel					2008
Nikolay Nerush	Steve Diamond	Jos Baxendell	Steve Diamond		2008–2010
Nikolay Nerush	Kingsley Jones	Henry Paul	Darren Morris		2010–2011
Kingsley Jones		Siua Taumalolo	Darren Morris		2011–2014
Raphaël Saint-André			Laurent Seigne		2014
Alexander Pervukhin		Alexander Alekseenko	Mark McDermott		2014–2018
Mark McDermott		Alexander Alekseenko	Mark McDermott		2018
Lyn Jones	Alexander Voytov	Shaun Connor	Mark McDermott	Mark Bennett	2018-

Stadiums and attendance

The national team does not have a permanent home stadium and play their matches at various locations across Russia. These include the rugby hotbed of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, where the national side played its first full test against a foundation union, versus Ireland in 2002. Other games have been played in Krasnodar, Sochi, Moscow, Monino and Penza.

After 2018 FIFA World Cup was held in Russia, the country received new large stadiums as a heritage. The Russian rugby union was given the opportunity to use these stadiums for the home games of the national team. The first big match took place in Moscow at VTB Arena as part of the warm-up to 2019 Rugby World Cup. In February 2020, Russia will host Portugal to the Kaliningrad Stadium.

The highest attended matches in Russia involving the Russian national team are:

Rank	Attendance	Opponent	Date	Venue	Location
1	15,000	Italy	1998-04-18	Central Stadium	Krasnoyarsk
2	15,000	Ireland	2002-09-21	Central Stadium	Krasnoyarsk
3	12,000	Namibia	2018-11-10	Kuban Stadium	Krasnodar
4	12,000	Portugal	2020-02-22	Kaliningrad Stadium	Kaliningrad
5	11,500	Spain	2018-02-10	Kuban Stadium	Krasnodar
6	10,000	United States	2003-06-19	Central Stadium	Krasnoyarsk
7	8,237	Spain	2020-02-01	Fisht Stadium	Sochi
8	8,000	Georgia	2008-04-12	Central Stadium	Krasnoyarsk
9	8,000	Zimbabwe	2014-08-04	Central Stadium	Krasnoyarsk
10	6,500	Connacht	2019-09-07	VTB Arena	Moscow
11	6,000	Belgium	2018-02-17	Kuban Stadium	Krasnodar
12	5,850	Georgia	2019-03-17	Kuban Stadium	Krasnodar
13	5,100	Barbarian F.C.	1992-06-06	RZD Arena	Moscow

Recent and upcoming fixtures

The following table shows the fixtures of the Russian national team in official test matches during the previous 12 months.

Date	Opponent	Opp Rank	Result	Venue	Event
2017-11-18	Chile	24	W 42-11	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong	2017 Cup of Nations
2017-11-14	Kenya	30	W 31-10	King's Park, Hong Kong	2017 Cup of Nations
2017-11-10	Hong Kong	22	W 16-13	King's Park, Hong Kong	2017 Cup of Nations
2017-06-18	Namibia	19	W 31-10	Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo	2017 World Rugby Nations Cup
2017-06-14	Uruguay	21	L 29-32	Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo	2017 World Rugby Nations Cup
2017-06-10	Argentina XV	n/a	W 39-38	Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo	2017 World Rugby Nations Cup
2017-03-19	Germany	24	W 52-25	Sochi Central Stadium, Sochi	2017 Rugby Europe Championship
2017-03-12	Georgia	12	L 14-28	Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi	2017 Rugby Europe Championship
2017-03-04	Romania	16	L 10-30	Sochi Central Stadium, Sochi	2017 Rugby Europe Championship
2017-02-18	Belgium	26	W 25-18	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels	2017 Rugby Europe Championship
2017-02-11	Spain	22	L 6-16	Estadio Nacional Complutense, Madrid	2017 Rugby Europe Championship

World Rugby Rankings

Men's World Rugby Rankings
Top 30 rankings as of 13 January 2021[6]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		South Africa	094.20
2		England	089.49
3		New Zealand	088.95
4		France	085.30
5		Ireland	084.65
6		Australia	083.08
7		Scotland	080.82
8		Argentina	080.31
9		Wales	079.36
10		Japan	079.29
11		Fiji	076.87
12		Georgia	072.18
13		Tonga	071.44
14		Italy	070.88
15		Samoa	070.72
16		United States	068.10
17		Spain	067.51
18		Uruguay	067.02
19		Romania	065.33
20		Portugal	062.12
21		Russia	061.96
22		Hong Kong	061.23
23		Canada	061.11
24		Namibia	061.04
25		Netherlands	060.09
26		Brazil	058.19
27		Belgium	057.17
28		Switzerland	054.12
29		Chile	053.81
30		Germany	053.13
*Change from the previous week
Russia's historical rankings
See or edit raw graph data.
Source: World Rugby - Graph updated to 16 November 2020[6]

On introduction of the World Rugby Rankings in October 2003, Russia was ranked 23rd. Since then the team's lowest ranking was 26 (most recently in October 2005). The team's ranking peaked at 16 on several occasions (most recently in February 2010). As of November 15, 2016, Russia is ranked 21st in the world.

Overall record

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Russia national XV at test level up until 7 February 2021.[7]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Argentina Jaguars	5	0	5	0	0.00%	58	200	–142
Argentina XV	2	2	0	0	100.00%	87	78	+9
Australia	1	0	1	0	0.00%	22	68	–46
Belgium	8	7	1	0	87.50%	275	148	+127
Canada	5	1	4	0	20.00%	91	157	–66
Chile	1	1	0	0	100.00%	42	11	+31
Croatia	1	0	1	0	0.00%	16	23	–7
Czech Republic	8	6	2	0	75.00%	309	104	+205
Denmark	3	3	0	0	100.00%	191	28	+163
England Saxons	1	0	1	0	0.00%	17	49	–32
France XV	2	0	2	0	0.00%	21	87	–66
French Military	1	0	1	0	0.00%	12	33	–21
Georgia	24	1	22	1	4.16%	267	595	–328
Germany	11	11	0	0	100.00%	528	140	+388
Hong Kong	5	5	0	0	100.00%	144	62	+82
Ireland	3	0	3	0	0.00%	15	132	–117
Emerging Ireland	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	66	–66
Italy	5	0	5	0	0.00%	76	283	–207
Emerging Italy	2	0	2	0	0.00%	36	60	–24
Italy A	4	0	4	0	0.00%	66	129	–63
Japan	7	1	6	0	16.7%	118	299	–161
Kenya	1	1	0	0	100.00%	31	10	+21
Morocco	3	2	1	0	66.67%	44	46	–2
Namibia	7	5	2	0	71.43%	183	141	+42
Netherlands	4	4	0	0	100.00%	208	39	+169
Norway	1	1	0	0	100.00%	66	0	+66
Papua New Guinea	1	1	0	0	100.00%	49	19	+30
Poland	4	4	0	0	100.00%	201	59	+142
Portugal	20	14	5	1	68.42%	537	380	+157
Romania	23	6	16	1	28.26%	329	567	–238
Samoa	1	0	1	0	0.00%	9	34	–25
Scotland	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	61	–61
Scotland A	1	0	1	0	0.00%	7	49	–42
Spain	23	16	7	0	72.72%	639	518	+121
Sweden	1	0	1	0	0.00%	13	20	–7
Tunisia	2	2	0	0	100.00%	57	41	+16
Ukraine	9	9	0	0	100.00%	439	115	+324
United States	8	0	8	0	0.00%	110	280	–170
USA Selects	1	1	0	0	100.00%	30	21	+9
Uruguay	9	4	5	0	44.44%	215	231	–16
Zimbabwe	3	3	0	0	100.00%	92	35	+57
Total	223	111	109	3	49.77%	5659	5418	+241

Individual records

Most caps

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Start	Sub	Won	Lost	Draw	%
1	Yuri Kushnarev	Fly-half	2005–	115	99	16	54	59	2	47.82
2	Victor Gresev	Flanker	2006–	103	93	10	45	57	1	44.17
3	Andrey Garbuzov	Lock	2005–	100	76	24	45	54	1	45.50
4	Vasily Artemyev	Centre	2009–	93	89	4	40	52	1	43.54
5	Andrei Kuzin	Centre	1997–2011	78	68	10	38	37	3	50.64
6	Alexander Khrokin	Prop	1994–2011	76	47	29	36	38	2	48.68
7	Vladislav Korshunov	Hooker	2002–2015	73	48	25	32	39	2	45.20
	Alexander Voytov	Lock	2003–2014	73	67	6	29	42	2	41.09
9	Viacheslav Grachev	Flanker	1993–2011	72	70	2	33	37	2	47.22
10	Mikhail Babaev	Wing	2006-	71	65	6	33	37	1	47.18
	Dmitry Gerasimov	Centre	2008-	71	61	10	29	42	0	40.84

Most tries

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Start	Sub	Pts	Tries
1	Vasily Artemyev	Centre	2009–	93	89	4	145	29
2	Andrei Kuzin	Centre	1997–2011	78	68	10	130	26
3	Vladimir Ostroushko	Wing	2006–	51	47	4	125	25
4	Victor Gresev	Flanker	2006–	103	93	10	100	20
5	Viacheslav Grachev	Flanker	1993–2011	72	70	2	95	19
6	Igor Galinovskiy	Wing	2006-	50	43	7	90	18
7	Alexander Gvozdovsky	Wing	2005-2010	31	28	3	75	15
	Denis Simplikevich	Wing	2011-	29	24	5	75	15
9	Evgeny Matveev	Hooker	2007-	65	26	39	65	13
10	Anton Rudoy	Flanker	2016-2018	20	19	1	60	12

Most points

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Pts	Tries	Conv	Pens	Drop
1	Yuri Kushnarev	Fly-half	2005–	115	784	11	150	141	2
2	Konstantin Rachkov	Fly-half	1997–2011	44	316	10	51	41	5
3	Ramil Gaisin	Fly-half	2012–	52	168	7	32	23	0
	Vladimir Simonov	Centre	2001-2004	22	168	11	25	18	3
5	Vasily Artemyev	Centre	2009–	93	145	29	0	0	0
6	Andrei Kuzin	Centre	1997–2011	78	130	26	0	0	0
7	Vladimir Ostroushko	Wing	2006–	51	125	25	0	0	0
8	Alexander Yanyushkin	Scrum-half	2002–2015	70	116	10	9	16	0
9	Viktor Motorin	Scrum-half	1999–2009	41	112	2	24	18	0
10	Victor Gresev	Flanker	2006–	103	100	20	0	0	0

Other international teams

Sevens

Russia also has a rugby sevens team, which competes in several rounds each year on the World Rugby Sevens Series and in the FIRA-AER Grand Prix Sevens circuit, with Moscow hosting the second leg. The sevens team has recorded wins against Tier 1 nations and recorded their first top eight finish at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens, and a Bowl win in Glasgow in 2012. The team is two-time European Champion (2007 and 2009), making it the second most successful team at that tournament.

Women

Russia's women field national rugby union teams in both fifteens, where it appeared at the Women's Rugby World Cup in 1994 and 1998 as Russia and in 1991 as the USSR, and in sevens, which took part in the first Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2009 and which contests the IRB Women's Sevens World Series.

See also

• CIS rugby union team
• USSR national rugby union team
• Russia national rugby league team

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2017-07-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. RUR Team Media Guide RWC11
3. Rugby Union of Russia Official Team Media Guide for RWC11
4. http://www.ferugby.com/noticias.htm
5. "Official RWC 2011 Site". RugbyWorldCup.com. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
6. "Men's World Rankings". World Rugby. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
7. Russia rugby statistics

External links

• (in Russian) Rugby Union of Russia – Official Site