DBWI : Russia didn't get in to rugby?

So, it's the quarter finals of the European Cup over the Easter weekend as always. This year's results - what with CSKA Moscow beating Northampton at Franklin's Gardens, Leicester Tigers getting a very close scare out playing Burevestnik in Kiev, and Cardiff losing to Spartak Tblisi at home - got me thinking. What if Rugby never took off in the USSR?

OK, it got a bit of a helping hand when Brezhnev personally decided to wind up the Soviet Top League football with that awful riot at the Soviet Cup final in 1976 (topping off a year of rampant hooliganism), splitting up the Ukrainian sides from the Russian sides. By then, though rugby was the second most popular sport after Ice Hockey.

The boom that started after 1992, not just in Russia but in all the post-Soviet states really has put the cat amongst the pidgeons, leading to the new 1997 32 team Rugby World Cup.

I guess Cuba wouldn't be the growing force they are today. They were positively unlucky not to get to the Quarters of the world cup last year in Australia, losing to Argentina - only about the sixth time they've played since the end of the Junta in Argentina, oddly enough. To think it was the first ever penalty shootout in rugby, I distinctly remember Jonathan Pearce and Colin Jackson (he was so fast he could have been a sprinter!) thumbing through the rulebooks to see where the kicks were taken from, indeed, it was 40 metres out. Dayron Robles really was the breakout player of the tournament.

Remember that the Soviets were most keen on keeping South Africa out of the game, indeed offering significant money in the form of Lada sponsorship (and indeed free cars!) for the Lions teams to tour the USSR rather than SA. OK, there's a difference between going to Moscow and going to Joberg, and the competition wasn't as good as the Australians or Kiwis, but they certainly knew how to put a show on, and it wasn't South Africa.

Thank goodness the RFU saw sense and decided to allow teams to enter the European Cup in 1990, supposedly they came close to kicking out Saracens and Wasps for entering ...
 
I have been very impressed with the advances in controlled-climate venues world-wide. This was of course necessitated by the Russian climate, but also led to a bit of competition between the Soviets and the American football stadia. The most memorable cold-weather match, of course, was the 1978 "Permafrost Match," friendly between Quins and Red Army West. Three players were hospitalized with hypothermia, and six fans actually froze to death (four of whom were not recognized as such until it was noticed that they failed to get up and leave after the match!).

So, knock out a lot of interesting architectural developments such as the innovative roof-over of Dynamo in 1982.
 
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Yes, that tour was a bit of an odd one, that was a quite horrible stadium I suppose. The Russians do have to go for undersoil heating in a big way, and of course have their off-season in December and January. Of course, Sochi is a popular venue for internationals for obvious reasons.

Speaking of Sochi, who's looking forward to this year's Spartak Sevens? Odd event, going from being part of the Spartikad but continuing on, it's a crazy event. OK, clubs for obvious scheduling reasons send out academy teams, but a 64 team carnival of sevens over a week is such a great event, it's so open but I give Quins and Stade a good chance this year, although Hamburg's youth system has kicked up a gear, while German rugby has always looked eastwards as East Germany got the game from Russia the West is really growing rapidly. Now they joined the European Cup system, it's all coming on leaps and bounds.
 
Yes, that Dynamo Stadium roof. The retractable roof that's over the Luzhniki Stadium that went up in '94 is beautiful, keeping the look of the old stadium but making it far more usable.

Oh, and we've got the draw for the European Cup semis in

Leicester Tigers - Stade Francais
CSKA Moscow - Spartak Tblisi

Obviously, in the current climate Moscow-Tblisi is having to be moved to a neutral venue, looks like they're going to be playing at Twickers. Final, of course, is at the Commonwealth Games Stadium in Cardiff.

Also on the subject of the club game, with a few league rounds left the Vauxhall Super League in England is hotting up, Tigers are of course with a significant lead and Bristol looking likely to get the second home semi-final, but there's a four way battle between Saracens, Northampton, Harlequins and Wasps for the last two places.

New IRB World Rankings too

1 New Zealand 1550
2 England 1320
3 Australia 1280
4 Wales 1233
5 Russia 1231
6 Ireland 1230
7 Georgia 1225
8 Romania 1199
9 Argentina 1186
10 France 1177
11 South Africa 1151
12 Scotland 1135
13 Ukraine 1100
14 Italy 1073
15 Cuba 1071
16 Samoa 998
17 Lithuania 971
18 USA 955
19 Germany 923
20 Tonga 901
21 Latvia 874
22 Fiji 858
23 Estonia 831
24 Namibia 813
25 Belarus 800

Cuba really breathing down Italy's necks here. The All Blacks are still a great team, but obviously beatable, this year's England tour should be a good one.
 
Whenever I see those rankings with Fiji at the bottom I can't help but shake my head. Considering the number of Fijians playing for Australia and NZ makes them seem so much worse than they are.
 
That's how it works - big money league, three year residency gives eligibility. Of course, it has cut both ways, think of the stream of South Africans wanting to play international rugby going to Europe in the 80s. Remember, South Africa was only readmitted to the IRB in 1994 and had to become a "wildcard" for the World Cup, admittedly they got a bit of a hammering.

Been a big day for international news too. Russia have applied to leave the European Championship and join the Five Nations. I suppose leaving Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Romania and Italy will be a big jump up in quality, but the question is how good they will be. Rumour has it the Baltic Tri-Nations will go to merge with the CEC to create a new eight-team tournament.

Also, there's going to now be a regular competition for South Africa, there's going to be an African Tri-Nations involving South Africa, Angola and Namibia. Angola are really coming on leaps and bounds, going from obscurity to qualifying for the last two world cups. Yes, they had a big input in the 80s and 90s with Russian coaches, but now they've developed their own brand of rugby.

Oh, a big mistake from the IRB, they somehow left Japan off the rankings list! They're actually 16th on 1048.
 
Well the Southern Africa competition doesn't strike me as a good idea. Yes Namibia have come on a long way but they are still not in South Africa's league and as for Angola forget about it. I bet it'll fold within three or four years. South Africa should join the Pacific 5 Nations, They'll help make it a bit more balanced rather than just have the Kiwi's and Aussies compete to see who can smash Japan, PNG and Fiji be the biggest cricket score.
 
In Russia, the intimidation is for New Zealand haka!


Well, I tried.


But, seriously, without rugby, the Soviets might have had to take up something more civil, like volleyball with live explosives, etc.
 
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