RWC MatchDay Live: Ireland v Russia
The excitement is building ahead of Ireland’s Pool C encounter with Russia at the Rugby Word Cup. You can keep up-to-date with Sunday’s game via our RWC MatchDay Live service right here on IrishRugby.ie.
RWC MatchDay Live – Click Here
Leo Cullen, who played against Russia in a Rugby World Cup qualifier nine years ago, is hoping to captain Ireland to their third victory in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Cullen is one of the four World Cup debutants in Declan Kidney’s selected team, the others being winger Fergus McFadden and forwards Sean Cronin and Donnacha Ryan.
In all, there are ten changes, including one positional switch, to the Irish side that claimed an historic 15-9 victory over Australia in Auckland.
Keith Earls and Paddy Wallace form the centre partnership and Ronan O’Gara, who will be making his 114th appearance for Ireland, will be joined by Isaac Boss at half-back.
Tony Buckley and Sean Cronin have been added to the front row, Cullen and Donncha O’Callaghan combine in the second row and Nenagh man Ryan gets a chance to impress at blindside flanker.
Ireland have only played Russia once before at Test level, winning that World Cup qualifier in Krasnoyarsk on a 35-3 scoreline. O’Gara kicked 15 points that day, with Girvan Dempsey, Malcolm O’Kelly and former skipper Keith Wood (2) sharing out the tries.
The Russian team lining out in front of a capacity 26,000 attendance in Rotorua includes former Leinster and Ireland underage player Vasily Artemyev, who was actually coached by Cullen during his schooldays at Blackrock College.
Second row Adam Byrnes, who spent two seasons at Leinster, is another familiar name in the Bears’ starting line-up.
We will have live text commentary direct from Rotorua International Stadium. Plug in the laptop or turn on the PC and enjoy a flavour of Sunday’s match live on IrishRugby.ie.
There will be full live text and score updates throughout the coverage as Ireland look to make it three wins out of three in Pool C and edge closer to that coveted quarter-final place.
There is live TV coverage of the match on RTÉ Two, Setanta Sports Ireland and UTV. There will also be highlights on a number of channels later in the day, including TG4.
Michael Corcoran will also be doing live commentary of the game on RTÉ Radio 1, with their coverage beginning 15 minutes before kick-off.
Starting at 5.30pm NZ time/5.30am Irish time with our pre-match build-up (the game kicks off at 6pm NZ time/6am Irish time), you can feel part of the action on IrishRugby.ie with MatchDay Live.
Look out for the MatchDay Live button in the Ireland section or simply click on the link below:
RWC MatchDay Live – Click Here
Follow the Ireland team in New Zealand on www.twitter.com/irfurugby.