Russians a familiar rugby foe for Jones
Canada coming off loss to Scotland
Coach Kingsley Jones will see familiar faces everywhere he looks on Saturday when his Canadian side takes on Russia at Ottawa’s Twin Elm Rugby Park.
Russian forwards coach Alexander Voytov was Jones’ captain when he coached Russia. Jones brought backs coach Josh Taumalolo, a former Tongan international, to Russia. The Russian performance coach played lock under Jones.
Jones joined the Russian team as a consultant prior to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, before being elevated to national teams director and taking over the national squad. He resigned in 2014 for family reasons.
“Going to a World Cup, you can’t buy that,” he said. “To take a team to a World Cup was a tremendous time.”
The Russians dropped all four games at the 2011 World Cup, but came close in a 13-6 loss to the U.S. — Jones recalls his team made 220 tackles in the rain — and managed to score a total of 61 points against Australia, Ireland and Italy. They’re headed back to rugby’s showcase, qualifying for the 2019 tournament in Japan after Spain, Belgium and Romania were sanctioned for fielding ineligible players.
Canada has one more crack at joining them, via a last-chance repechage tournament in November. Both Canada and Russia are coming off disappointing performances.
The 21st-ranked Canadian men were battered 48-10 last week in Edmonton by No. 6 Scotland.
No. 19 Russia was hammered 6213 by the 15th-ranked U.S. Eagles in Denver.
Jones expects a much better performance from the Russians on Saturday. Meanwhile, World Rugby says a win over the Russians would move Canada back into the top 20. A loss and Canada drops to 22nd place.
In Russia, Jones divided his team between Sochi, Moscow and other cities, wherever the national team was training or playing.
His last game in charge was a 3120 win over Germany in May 2014.
Canada is 4-0-0 all-time against Russia, winning 46-12 most recently in Calgary in 2016.