Russian coach seeking NZ World Cup players

Media release - November 1, 2010

Russian coach seeking eligible NZ players for Russian World Cup squad

Russian coach Steve Diamond is seeking eligible New Zealand players for his Russian World Cup squad for next year.

As the spotlight falls on New Zealand for the World Cup just 10 months away, Russia is preparing in the shadows for their day in the sun at next year's World Cup. Diamond told Word of Mouth he was putting out a call for Kiwis who may qualify to play for Russia.

``I would like an opportunity to somehow try and contact any reasonable standard New Zealand players who have former Soviet - Russian ancestry. Players who have a grandparent who was from the former Soviet block countries would be eligible,'' he said from Moscow today.

``Our target is to beat the United States. We hope to be able to challenge the other sides and one or two eligible home-grown New Zealand players could help our cause.''

Diamond is a former Sale and Saracens coach and was appointed Russia's director of rugby two years ago. His team make their first world cup appearance next year having beaten German and Spain and drawn with Romania in qualifying games.

They will meet Australia, Ireland, Italy and the USA in Pool C, playing four games in 16 days. Their opener is against the United States on September 15 in New Plymouth before playing Italy five days later ahead of their final pool matches against Ireland and Australia.

Russia, which lost to the US and the England B team but beat Uruguay in the Churchill Cup this year, already has one Kiwi on board.

Former Kiwi rugby league star and England rugby back Henry Paul is Russia's backs and skills coach. He will be with the squad when they visit New Zealand in January with games against a Taranaki XV in New Plymouth on January 15 and against South Canterbury in Timaru on January 21.

Paul told Word of Mouth he was excited about his new career move into coaching.

``This is a fantastic opportunity to be involved as a coach of one of the World Cup sides next year. Our guys are really looking forward to playing in New Zealand in January as a precursor to the tournament.

``We head off next week to play John Kirwan's Japan side in Tokyo. There is some real talented in our squad but it would be interesting to see if any eligible NZ players would like to have a shot at making our World Cup squad.

``Moscow is great city but getting around is a nightmare due to traffic. Red Square is very impressive. As to World Cup, we have only really scratched the surface due to time constraints with touring and training.

``We're staying and training at the Olympic park. A lot of top athletes are seen walking around and you see pictures on the walls here of athletes with and gold medals around their necks. If our players wanted for any motivation, it's right here for them.''
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