EURO MED CHALLENGE GAME TWO

Russia proved far too strong for a young, inexperienced Cedars outfit, running in 15 tries to take the Euro-Med title. Leading the spree, winger Nikolay Zagoskin crossed for a hat trick, as the Bears moved the ball wide to devastating effect.

They got off to a rip-roaring start, with four touchdowns in the opening ten minutes; Baskakov profiting from a fine flick pass, Sergey Dobrynin finishing a long range break with a fine step and Zagoskin on the end of some from mesmerising work out of dummy half by Roman Ovchinnikov.

Baskakov added a second after near constant pressure on the Lebanese line and Sergey Matveev was provider and then scorer, sending in Petr Bptnarsch and then powering in from Viktor Nechaev’s pass.

Bptnarsch found space in the corner after more expansive play and Oleg Smirnov scattered the cover on a burst up the middle to make it 38-0 at the break.

The hosts were similarly relentless in the second half thanks to the incessant go forward of Evgeny Bojoukov, Matveev and Artoym Batmanov, with Nechaev and Ovchinnikov orchestrating their waves of attack.

Zagoskin and Dobrynin brought up the half century and Ovchinnikov was rewarded for his industry supporting Andrey Medvedv.

Zagoskin completed his treble and scrum half Vladimir Vlasyuk jinked over, Medvedv stepping Paul Jabbour when he got clear on the overlap.

Russia’s final score came seven minutes from time, Bojoukov deservedly rewarded when storming over straight down the middle.

RUSSIA
Oleg Lugunov, Nikolay Zagoskin, Sergey Dobrynin, Petr Bptnarsch, Valentin Baskakov, Viktor Nechaev, Vladimir Vlasyuk, Alexander Lysenkov, Roman Ovchinnikov, Evgeny Bojoukov, Sergey  Matveev, Azat Musin, Oleg Smirnov. Subs: Artoym Batmanov, Andrey Medved, Ramil Yusupov, Marat Khabibullin   

LEBANON
P. Jabbour, R. Rassi, M. Jamil, G. Dandach, R. Khoury, A. Bekdache, J. Abinassif, R. Hachache, F. Azzam, Y. Helou, N. Saliba, A. El Masri, W. Harb. Subs: M. Finan, N. Dora, H. Rifai, Y. Chagoury.