'You get nervous whether it's a club match in some God-knows-where city in Russia or the opening day of the Rugby World Cup in Japan'
Vasily Artemyev is ready for the biggest moment of his life. Russia’s miserable warm-up results beg to differ, but nothing can dampen the skipper’s enthusiasm as he prepares to lead his country out the Tokyo Stadium tunnel next Friday with the eyes of 50,000 spectators on him and many millions more watching on live TV.
Russia’s match preparation to take on host nation Japan in the opening game of the 2019 World Cup has been traumatic. Three defeats, 162 points leaked, their try line breached 24 times. Painful.
Artemyev, though, refuses to be downhearted even if a 70-point hammering by Italy, followed by embarrassing home losses to Championship outfit Jersey and PRO14 club Connacht, does sound awful.
He is bravely not letting those mishaps douse his excitement for what is to come at Ajinomoto Stadium, exposure like never before in a Test career that dates back to 2009 and includes playing at the 2011 finals.
“The results for the last couple of friendlies are secondary to what we tried to achieved, to what we tried to do in giving everybody game time,” he told RugbyPass before the start of a tournament that will also see the 20th world-ranked minnows take on Scotland, Ireland and Samoa.
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“We are always a little bit slow to start with. When we kick off a new block it has always been a little feature… but we have made our errors, we have shaken off a little bit of rustiness we have had as a team.
“Mentally it was really challenging to lose in that fashion. No one ever wants to be in that position, so it has helped us to focus, to be better next time and for everyone to do their best to help the team to reach new targets and goals.
“Everybody has a chance at the World Cup. Japan proved it at the last World Cup that an underdog, a tier two nation, can on a good day with the right mentality, preparation, game plan and strategy beat a tier one, one of the favourites of the tournament.
Rugby World Cup has a warm-up result last night in Moscow that won't do much for the credibility of the minnow nations heading to Japanhttps://t.co/Ef3burxTlC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 28, 2019
“Then again we are not playing all our games against a tier one nation, so we will do our best in the first game against Japan. That is going to be a huge honour to be part of the competition, to be part of the opening ceremony, the opening match against the hosts.
“It’s huge for everyone involved in the Russian squad. We will do our best and try to spoil it for the hosts, but we do realise how strong Japan have been recently and how long they have been preparing for this World Cup, so it isn’t going to be easy.”
A veteran of 86 caps, the 32-year-old is eager to embrace the onerous schedule rather than feel in any way overawed by a World Cup that will commence with the eyes of the rugby world on Russia. “You get nervous, you get this matchday feeling when you play any match, whether it’s a club match in some God-knows-where city in Russia or if it’s the opening day of the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
“You get those feelings and as a professional athlete and you learn to use them, to channel this emotion and feelings towards your performance and to help you focus. When you are younger it was maybe hard and difficult to manage a certain level of nervousness and occasion in your head, but when you have been around for several years you start to learn how to use it to help yourself.
“It was an amazing experience going to New Zealand eight years ago and spending about a month at the heart of probably the most rugby-playing nation in the world, seeing the support, seeing the welcome of the locals and local towns having their road signs in Cyrillic, stuff like that in Blenheim where we were based initially.
“We know Japan are notorious for putting so much attention to detail in everything they do. We are expecting everything to be planned out to the nth degree and I’m sure with the rise of interest in rugby in their country in the past few years, we are going to see a lot of attention for Russia to be playing in quite an exotic rugby-playing nation.”
'When the Russian anthem was played, you couldn't hear a note. That's how hostile the crowd was.' https://t.co/CVy3wjlzvR
— liam heagney (@heagneyl) February 3, 2019
The predictions suggest Russia have travelled to the finals on a wing and a prayer, but they are not without some hope. They did need a generous leg-up to qualify in the first place, player eligibility sanctions against higher-ranked Romania and Spain belatedly opening the door to progress after a 2018 Rugby European Championship where Russia won just two of five matches.
But they only lost out to Japan 32-27 in the closing minutes last November in Gloucester, the sort of result that gives Lyn Jones’ team the necessary optimism that they can be competitive next Friday and in the weeks after.
Respect for their efforts would be pleasing as being a professional rugby player in Russia is quite a hard slog. “It’s less rewarding than most other popular sports in Russia,” explained Artemyev, who had two seasons in the English Premiership with Northampton off the back of the 2011 World Cup.
#RWC2019: Not just the on-field #RUS?? staff putting in a shift with the weights in Japan! ??????? pic.twitter.com/5hcy2DSp3H
— Rugby Union Russia (@russiarugby) September 13, 2019
“You can still make a living, a comfortable living out of it, especially if you’re a national team player. You do get some preferential benefits from being in the national team as well. But for an ordinary player, it’s nothing that will support you for the rest of your life, that’s for sure.
“It isn’t comparable with ice hockey, soccer or basketball salaries and I could list several other team sports that would earn considerably more than the rugby players. At the moment it’s not huge. It’s probably comparable to what some players earn in Federale 1 or Pro D2 (in France).
“A lot of guys may have some side business, which is not uncommon when you play rugby in Russia because you do have quite long periods of time without any games during the winters. If you’re not involved in any of the national teams you’re back in your city just training for several months without playing any games because of the climate.”
It was a stint in Ireland that began as a teenager which accelerated Artemyev’s career and even though he is a long time gone from Dublin where he achieved a bachelor of law qualification, his patter seamlessly switches back into an Irish accent when reflecting on an adventure where he won provincial schools medals with the famed Blackrock College and represented age-grade Leinster and Ireland sides.
“It was a transition year in my Russian school so my parents wanted me to study abroad for a year,” he explained. “I just picked out a random school in Ireland through a study agency. They offered a few schools to pick from so I picked Blackrock because they told me they played a little bit of rugby there as far as they had heard.
“I picked them as I didn’t want up give up rugby for that year as I’d been playing since I was about nine or 10. I ended up in Blackrock, was underage for a junior cup competition that year and it just took off. The school wanted me to stay on and I didn’t mind. I did that and went on to study in UCD and play for their college team. Seven years in total I spent in Ireland.”
The Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk is where Artemyev now earns his crust, his Krasny Yar club pulling off a stunning October 2017 Challenge Cup win over Stade Francais. His additional role on a player’s council helps to pad out his downtime, giving him an overview of the recent growth of the sport in Russia which he hopes is well-positioned to further increase awareness on the back of the World Cup.
Artemyev doesn’t think the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is taking up an invite from former Japanese leader Yoshiro Mori to attend Friday’s opening match, but what he is certain of is rugby is enjoying the assistance of Artemyev’s namesake, Igor Artemyev, the powerful head of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service who is now the national rugby federation’s chairman.
“We don’t have any direct presence of the president [Putin] at our games or anything like that, but if he does say a few words of support it would be broadcast on all the channels instantly and would bring good PR for rugby. Igor Artemyev is a figure high up on the political scene in his role and the positive changes that have been happening over the last two years have basically all happened after Igor took over this new rugby role.
#RWC2019: Today players representing the nine clubs which comprise Team #RUS?? met the Japanese press (L-R)@metallurg_rugby @SlavaRugby@VVA_Podmoskovje@rugbykuban@Yar_rugby @FCGrugby @Enisei_STM @SaleSharksRugby
Lokomotiv Penza pic.twitter.com/vGCm4xDXmw— Rugby Union Russia (@russiarugby) September 13, 2019
“There has been some good influx of funding towards the clubs and the championship will be expanded to 10 for the first time. It’s eight teams now and it was only like six semi-pro teams a few years ago. There is good movement in the right direction and the World Cup will give it another impulse.
“We’re on the right track and hoping to raise public awareness, to make rugby more interesting and fascinating for people to watch and try out. The rugby union has been working hard to make it available to kids to try and there has been a programme the last few years re-introducing rugby back into the military services as well.
“The primary objective is to grow and develop the local championship because 95 per cent of national team players currently play in the Russian league. The more we can improve the league and the level of intensity of games, the better outcome we will get in terms of players’ preparation to be competing at Test level.”
How good that league currently is will be laid bare on Friday with the world watching on.
WATCH: The trailer for the new RugbyPass documentary looking at the preparations of Tonga ahead of their World Cup campaign
Comments on RugbyPass
Hold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
39 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
39 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
39 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
39 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
39 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
39 Go to comments