Rugby Union Today: Short side and Ireland beat Russia

Colin Newboult

Ireland's Andrew Conway (right) celebrates scoring his side's fourth try of the game during the 2019 Rugby World Cup Pool A match at the Kobe Misaki Stadium, Kobe City.

Another busy day in the rugby union game as we look at the main talking points ahead of the big Rugby World Cup matches this weekend.

What’s on the site

There are some more crucial games in the World Cup pool stages, including South Africa v Italy and England v Argentina, and we have delved into the big issues going into the contests in ‘the short side.’

Elsewhere, Ireland secured their second victory in this year’s global tournament, defeating Russia 35-0, but it wasn’t exactly convincing as they struggled to find their rhythm.

Check out highlights from that encounter and the earlier contest between Fiji and Georgia, which saw the Pacific Islanders get their first win of the competition.

What’s in the news

England have named their team to take on Argentina with Eddie Jones reverting to the George Ford-Owen Farrell axis. Those two combine in the playmaking positions with two-try hero from the Tonga game, Manu Tuilagi, starting outside Farrell at 13.

Meanwhile, the Pumas have also selected their 23. Once again, Benjamin Urdapilleta is named at fly-half but Nicolas Sanchez has rather surprisingly been ousted from the squad altogether.

Finally, Michael Leitch has returned to Japan’s starting line-up to take on Samoa on Saturday. The skipper was initially named among the replacements against Ireland but Amanaki Mafi’s injury has seen head coach Jamie Joseph bring Leitch back in.

What’s on social media

Bak-San has been one of the stars of the World Cup and he was at the Ireland v Russia encounter.

What’s on TV

The Rugby World Cup continues where all the games will be exclusively live on ITV. It should be another thrilling week of pool action with England versus Argentina the standout contest on Saturday.

Away from the global tournament, it is Round Two of the PRO14 and all the matches are being shown on Premier Sports. Even without their international stars, there are some intriguing encounters as Glasgow take on the Scarlets and Leinster face the Ospreys.

On BT Sport, the Premiership Rugby Cup has reached the third round as Worcester Warriors host Exeter Chiefs and Saracens visit Northampton Saints, while Sky Sports are showing the Mitre 10 Cup.

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