LY N J O N E S
I
T’S NEARLY a year
since I became head
coach of Russia and
I’ve been impressed
by the ability of the players.
They have a good vision
for the game and the best
players are those who
have spent time on the
sevens circuit; their skill
levels are quite high.
The work-ons are what
you would expect for a
Tier Two nation: strength &
conditioning and a modern
view of the contemporary
game tactically. The biggest component
for us is certainly strength & conditioning
and we’re going to be taken to the limit
by our opponents in the World Cup. It
would be a shame for us to blow up
after 60 minutes and we want to
prevent that and be able to play equally
well in the last 20 as the first 40.
Mark Bennett is our S&C coach, then
we have Mark McDermott from Ireland
(scrum), Shaun Connor from Wales
(backs) and Alexandr Voytov from
Moscow (lineout). We’re cramming four
years of work into 12 months and are
spinning a lot of plates. We’re hoping
that when we get to Japan the players’
individual abilities will subsidise any lack
of development they’ve missed out on.
The sheer size of Russia means there
is no such thing as a four-day camp, it’s
a minimum of two weeks. So as you can
imagine, the dedication from Russian
players is high. The clubs have been
fantastic. They’re desperate for the team
to do the country proud in Japan. The
2011 experience (Russia’s only previousWorld Cup) was an insight for many in
the club game about what is required
in a World Cup year. There’s a level of
understanding surviving from 2011,
and I can only thank the clubs for their
sacrifice and commitment to the cause.
We will have about eight survivors
from 2011 in the squad, including Vasily
Artemyev. He’s experienced, respected
and intelligent, and he is our captain.
It’s a massive honour for us to open
the World Cup (against Japan) and we
realise the responsibility involved. We
play Samoa four days later and that short
turnaround is all I think about, I wake up
at night in cold sweats! How are we
going to recover to take on another
gigantic experience? We will have a plan
but experience tells me you’ve just got
to get as many players as you can back
on the field. I think generally teams can
put in two performances within four days.
Some people say we are lucky to be
at the World Cup because other teams
were deducted points. No, no, no. Other
teams (Spain, Romania) didn’t registertheir players properly.
What if I go to New
Zealand and bring back a
forward to play for Russia
without due process? That
would give us an unfair
advantage. So what’s
happened has happened
and we’re moving forward
as the second-best side
in the Rugby Europe
Championship.
At the recent Nations
Cup in Montevideo, we
beat Argentina XV (48-40)
and Namibia (20-0), and
finishing second in a very tight race
was confidence-boosting. Because our
preparation between camps can be
so long, we find we can struggle in the
first game of a tournament. We need to
learn our lesson in time for Japan.
What would represent success at the
World Cup? Winning the final against the
All Blacks. Okay, Australia. Look, we can
define it in many ways. As a nation, we
want respect from the rugby population
of the world. We need to push this
nation back up the world rankings and
help the national profile of rugby grow.
There’s plenty of potential, that’s for
certain. There are half-a-dozen players
I could recommend to Premiership
sides. What they don’t have in Russia is
academies; they’re being set up at the
moment. It’s very much like what Wales
was 20 years ago, where players
develop despite of, not because of,
the system. We’re in the process of
changing that around in Russia, which is
going to be beneficial for when we play
in World Cup qualification for 2023. n“We’re cramming four years
of work into 12 months”
The Russia coach on preparing a Tier Two nation for the World Cup
Trial run
Russia lost 32-27 to Japan
at Kingsholm last autumn