The Russia national rugby union team (), nicknamed the Bears (), represents Russia in international men's rugby union and is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia. It is considered the successor of the Soviet Union and the CIS by World Rugby. Since 1992, the team has played as Russia.
The history of the sport in Russia goes back to the late 19th century, but a national team was not established until 1975, in the Soviet Union. The USSR took part in international competition, but declined an invitation to the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup for political reasons. The team's first test match as Russia was against Barbarian FC in Moscow in June 1992. The country's first test against an IRB nation was against Belgium four months later, during the 1992–1994 FIRA Trophy. That was also Russia's first participation in Rugby World Cup qualifying. Russia is seen as a Tier 2 union by World Rugby, and after the reorganization in 2000, Russia's regular international competition was the FIRA-AER European Nations Cup – often referred to as the Six Nations B. In 2017 it became known as the Rugby Europe International Championships. In addition, the team participated 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 in 2011 in New Zealand, after qualifying as Europe 2 through their second-place finish in the 2009–2010 European Nations Cup. Russia played in Pool C and finished fifth, after losing all four matches and only getting one competition point, which was during its match with the United States. They competed in 2019 in Japan by qualifying as Europe 1 as a result of Spain, Romania and Belgium being eliminated during the 2017–2018 Rugby Europe International Championships. Playing in Pool A, Russia finished in fifth place with zero competition points. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, World Rugby and Rugby Europe suspended Russia from international and European continental rugby union competition. In addition, the Rugby Union of Russia was suspended from World Rugby and Rugby Europe.
History Background and development
Rugby football was played in the Russian Empire from the late 19th century, and was the first form of football played in Russia. Rugby was later banned by the Tsarist government for its brutal nature and the possibility of inciting riots, but people continued playing it. The first official match was played in the Soviet Union in 1923. The Rugby Union of the USSR was founded in 1936, and the first All-Union championship was held that year. The effects of World War II and the temporary banning of the sport by Soviet government caused the sport to decline until the 1960s. In the early 1970s, there were over 10,000 registered players in the Soviet Union, and 20 teams in the national championship. In 1975 the Soviet Rugby Union was admitted to the International Amateur Rugby Federation (FIRA).
The Soviet Union national team took time to establish itself, but by the mid-1980s was regularly beating the likes of Italy and Romania. In 1988, the team defeated the United States by 31–16 in Moscow. The Soviet Union was invited to the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, but declined on political grounds, not least the continued International Rugby Board (IRB) membership of apartheid South Africa. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian players were part of the Commonwealth of Independent States team.
The first game played by the new Russian national team took place on 6 June 1992, when Russia beat Barbarian FC by 27–23. Russia's first game against a full IRB member was against Belgium four months later, as part of the 1992–1994 FIRA Trophy. This was Russia's first participation in Rugby World Cup qualifying. The tournament also saw the team secure its first win over its rival Georgia. Russia continued to participate until the realignment of FIRA-AER competitions in 2000. There was a decline in rugby union during the 1990s, when only Olympic sports continued to receive funding from the Russian government. Professional clubs in Moscow and elsewhere closed down, and the sport largely became limited to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, the traditional heartland of Russian rugby. There was also a lack of qualified coaches and referees.
Russia is designated as a Tier 2 union, and has played its regular competitive rugby in FIRA-AER's European Nations Cup from 2000, the second level mirror tournament to the Six Nations. 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 Rugby Union of Russia attempted to gain greater participation in the autumn test window, and was being integrated into World Rugby's global test match schedule. Russia initially qualified for the 2003 Rugby World Cup by defeating Spain in the repechage, but was disqualified by the IRB for having three South Africans on the squad who were not eligible to represent Russia. The RUR claimed they were eligible by ancestry, but did not produce documentation deemed acceptable by the IRB, and Spain were re-instated in qualification in Russia's place. The team did well enough in regionals to reach a play-off with Italy for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but lost the match.
First World Cup appearance (2011) In 2008 the former England player and coach Steve Diamond was hired as Russia's director of rugby to assist the team with qualifying for the next World Cup. During the Europe qualification for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Russia won against Germany, Romania, Spain, and Portugal in the 2009–2010 European Nations Cup First Division, finishing as the runners-up after a loss to Georgia. Russia's second-place finish in the European Nations Cup qualified the nation for its first World Cup appearance, as Europe 2. Russia was placed in Pool C at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, where they faced Ireland, Australia, the United States, and Italy. Although most did not consider Russia to be a serious contender for the World Cup, the team's goal was to try hard, make it to the World Rugby highlights reel, and use this as an opportunity to raise the popularity of the sport in their country. Russia lost their first World Cup match to the United States, but won their first World Cup competition point because they lost by a margin of less than seven points. Russia went on to lose all four matches in Pool C and finished in fifth place, with only one competition point.
Match resultsDate OpponentScoreVenueSource15 Sep 201113–6Stadium Taranaki, New PlymouthReport20 Sep 201153–17Trafalgar Park, NelsonReport25 Sep 201162–12International Stadium, RotoruaReport1 Oct 201168–22Trafalgar Park, NelsonReport
Second World Cup appearance (2019) The team's 2011 World Cup appearance, and the broadcasting in Russia of the 2003 and 2007 editions before that, led to increased interest in rugby union. However, in the years leading up to their qualification for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Russia was only able to win a match against one World Cup contender, Canada. When Spain, Belgium, and Romania were disqualified for having had ineligible players during the 2017–2018 Europe Championships, part of the Europe qualification, Russia advanced enough in the rankings to qualify as Europe 1. Lyn Jones became the coach of the Russia squad ahead of the World Cup, and led the team during another tournament, the 2019 World Rugby Nations Cup, where they achieved wins over Namibia and Argentina XV. Russia faced host nation Japan in the opening match of the 2019 World Cup, playing in Pool A along with Ireland, Scotland, and Samoa. Kirill Golosnitsky scored the fastest ever try in a World Cup opening match, giving Russia an early lead in the first five minutes, but they went on to lose to Japan. Russia lost all four matches and finished in fifth place, with zero competition points.
Match resultsDate OpponentScoreVenueSource20 Sep 201930–10Tokyo Stadium, TokyoReport24 Sep 201934–9Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, KumagayaReport3 Oct 201935–0Kobe Misaki Stadium, KobeReport9 Oct 201961–0Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, FukuroiReport
Suspension (since 2022) In 2022 World Rugby and Rugby Europe suspended Russia from international and European continental rugby union competition due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, the Rugby Union of Russia was suspended from World Rugby and Rugby Europe.
Team records
World Cup record
Europeans record Years Division W–L (Pts Diff) Position Promotion /Relegation 1992–1994 Pool for Title 1–3 (–36) 4th – 1995–1997 First Division 2–2 (–58) 3rd – 1998–1999 Second Division 3–0 (+128) 1st – 2000 Second Division 4–0 (+249) 1st Promoted 2001 First Division 3–2 (+9) 3rd — 2002 First Division 3–1–1 (+93) 3rd — 2003 First Division 3–6 (+23) 4th — 2004–2006 First Division 4–5 (+88) 4th – 2006–2008 First Division 8–2 (+165) 2nd – 2008–2010 First Division 7–1–2 (+112) 2nd – 2010–2012 Division 1A 2–3 (+2) 4th — 2012–2014 Division 1A 3–2 (–6) 3rd – 2014–2016 Division 1A 6–4 (−3) 3rd — 2017 Championship Division 2–3 (−10) 4th — 2018 Championship Division 2–3 (+58) 2nd — 2019 Championship Division 2–3 (+45) 4th – 2020 Championship Division 2–3 (−46) 5th — 2021 Championship Division 2–3 (−46) 5th — 2021 Championship Division 2–3 (−46) 5th — 2022 Championship Division 0–5 (−13) Suspended 2022 Suspended due to the invasion of Ukraine 2023 2024 2025
Overall record
Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Russia national XV at test level up until 12 February 2022, updated after match with .Russia rugby statistics Opponent Played Won Lost Drawn Win % For Aga Diff 5 0 5 0 0.00% 58 200 –142 2 2 0 0 % 87 78 +9 1 0 1 0 0.00% 22 68 –46 Basque Country 2 1 0 1 50.00% 52 42 –10 8 7 1 0 % 275 148 +127 5 1 4 0 % 91 157 –66 5 1 4 0 % 154 155 -1 1 0 1 0 0.00% 16 23 –7 8 6 2 0 % 309 104 +205 3 3 0 0 % 191 28 +163 1 0 1 0 0.00% 17 49 –32 2 0 2 0 0.00% 21 87 –66 French Military 1 0 1 0 0.00% 12 33 –21 25 1 23 1 % 273 621 –348 11 11 0 0 % 528 140 +388 5 5 0 0 % 144 62 +82 3 0 3 0 0.00% 15 132 –117 Emerging Ireland 1 0 1 0 0.00% 0 66 –66 5 0 5 0 0.00% 76 283 –207 2 0 2 0 0.00% 36 60 –24 4 0 4 0 0.00% 66 129 –63 7 1 6 0 % 118 299 –161 1 1 0 0 % 31 10 +21 3 2 1 0 % 44 46 –2 7 5 2 0 % 183 141 +42 5 5 0 0 % 243 47 +196 1 1 0 0 % 66 0 +66 1 1 0 0 % 49 19 +30 4 4 0 0 % 201 59 +142 21 14 6 1 % 563 429 +134 25 7 17 1 % 375 634 –259 1 0 1 0 0.00% 9 34 –25 1 0 1 0 0.00% 0 61 –61 1 0 1 0 0.00% 7 49 –42 25 16 9 0 % 688 608 +80 1 0 1 0 0.00% 13 20 –7 2 2 0 0 % 57 41 +16 9 9 0 0 % 439 115 +324 8 0 8 0 0.00% 110 280 –170 1 1 0 0 % 30 21 +9 9 4 5 0 % 215 231 –16 3 3 0 0 % 92 35 +57 Total 232 113 116 3 % 5865 5710 +155
Individual records Most caps #PlayerPosSpanMatStartSubWonLostDraw% 1 Yuri Kushnarev Fly-half 2005–2021 120 101 19 55 63 2 47.82 2 Victor Gresev Flanker 2006–2022 107 97 10 46 60 1 44.28 3 Andrey Garbuzov Lock 2005–2020 100 76 24 45 54 1 45.50 4 Vasily Artemyev Centre 2009–2022 98 94 4 41 56 1 43.68 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 Dmitry Gerasimov Centre 2008-2022 73 63 10 29 44 0 40.84 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 10 Viacheslav Grachev Flanker 1993–2011 72 70 2 33 37 2 47.22
Most tries #PlayerPosSpanMatStartSubPtsTries 1 Vasily Artemyev Centre 2009–2022 98 94 4 145 29 2 Andrei Kuzin Centre 1997–2011 78 68 10 130 26 3 Vladimir Ostroushko Wing 2006–2020 51 47 4 125 25 4 Victor Gresev Flanker 2006–2022 107 97 10 110 22 5 Viacheslav Grachev Flanker 1993–2011 72 70 2 95 19 6 Igor Galinovskiy Wing 2006-2019 50 43 7 90 18 7 Alexander Gvozdovsky Wing 2005-2010 31 28 3 75 15 Denis Simplikevich Wing 2011-2021 30 25 5 75 15 9 Evgeny Matveev Hooker 2007-2020 65 26 39 65 13 10 Anton Rudoy Flanker 2016-2018 20 19 1 60 12
Most points