Russia 9-34 Samoa: Rugby World Cup Pool A win marred by non-red card decisions
Last Updated: 26/09/19 10:05am
Samoa survived being reduced to 13 men for almost 10 minutes in the first half and struggled to overcome a limited and exhausted Russia team to open their Pool A World Cup campaign with a bonus-point 34-9 victory on Tuesday.
The Pacific islanders scored six tries but did themselves no favours in a scrappy game that saw Rey Lee-Lo and Motu Matu'u shown yellow cards for high tackles within two minutes of each other, with both exceptionally fortunate to avoid red cards for contact to the head.
Russia's Kirill Gotovtsev was sin-binned for a high tackle in the second half as Afaesetiti Amosa scored Samoa's second try - the No 8 departing with a serious knee injury.
Ed Fidow (two), Lee-Lo and Alapati Leiua also crossed for tries as Russia, who fielded the same team last Friday in the tournament opener against Japan, wilted in the second half.
After going at Japan hard in the tournament's opening game and giving the hosts a scare in the process, Russia set out with the same game-plan and again found themselves in the lead early on in front of a crowd packed with enthusiastic local fans.
The noticeably fresher Samoans struck first though after a fine skip pass from Clermont Auvergne's Tim Nanai-Williams found Leiua and the Bristol man, who shifted to the wing in a late injury-enforced change, jinked his way over in the corner.
But the Russian set-piece and kicking game that concerned Samoa coach Steve Jackson before kick-off tested his side's discipline and as the penalty count ticked up, Russia fly-half Yury Kushnarev knocked two over for a 6-5 lead.
With World Rugby publicly criticising the officiating over the first weekend of the World Cup shortly before kick-off, Romain Poite had a decision to make on 28 minutes when centre Lee-Lo went in high on Russia captain Vasily Artemyev.
Poite and his television match official deemed that Artemyev had dipped slightly into the tackle and made the same call two minutes later when a near identical tackle sent hooker Matu'u to the bin.
Their opponents were unable to make anything from the two-man advantage, something Artemyev rued after the game as the punishing four-day turnaround from the Japan defeat began to show among their unchanged side in the second half.
Amosa put the Samoans back in front with a try just after the break and Gotvotsev's yellow card for catching him high just as he was about to score ended Amosa's night too after his knee buckled in the collision.
Matu'u also failed a head-injury assessment and could miss their September 30 clash with Scotland in Kobe.
Samoa showed how to use the 10-minute advantage and put the game out of sight by the time Gotvotsev returned, first with the kind of flair Vui promised before the game as replacement hooker Ray Niuia's delicious no-look reverse pass put Fidow through.
The winger got his second minutes later before Lee-Lo and Leiua rounded the score off against the Russians, who now have nine days off until they meet Ireland in Kobe.