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Nelson - Coach Nikolay Nerush has made six changes from the loss to Ireland in his starting line-up to play Australia on Saturday in the last match of Russia's first Rugby World Cup campaign.
Centre Alexey Makovetskiy, flyhalf Yury Kushnarev, flank Vyacheslav Grachev, lock Alexander Voytov, prop Ivan Prishchepenko and hooker Vladislav Korshunov were picked on Thursday for the Pool C match at Trafalgar Park.
Sergei Trishin, Konstantin Rachkov, Andrey Garbuzov, Denis Antonov, Alexander Khrokin and the suspended Valery Tsnobiladze are out, although Garbuzov and Rachkov are on the replacements bench.
Russia lost 62-12 to the Irish at Rotorua last Sunday, their third defeat in as many matches after going down 13-6 to the United States in New Plymouth and 53-17 to Italy in Nelson.
The starting line-up has played a combined 543 Tests and is Russia's second-most experienced behind the team that lost to Italy with 569 caps.
Hooker Vladislav Korshunov returns as captain after being rested against Ireland. He replaces Tsnobiladze, who was suspended for three weeks on Wednesday for a headbutt on Ireland flank Sean O'Brien last Sunday.
Fullback Vasily Artemyev will start a fourth straight match the World Cup and is one of only 10 players who has played in three matches so far at the tournament.
Teams:
Russia:
15 Vasily Artemyev, 14 Denis Simplikevich, 13 Andrey
Kuzin, 12 Alexey Makovetskiy, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Yury Kushnarev,
9 Alexander Yanyushkin, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Vyacheslav Grachev, 6 Artem
Fatakhov, 5 Adam Byrnes, 4 Alexander Voytov, 3 Ivan Prishchepenko, 2
Vladislav Korshunov (captain), 1 Sergey Popov
Substitutes: 16
Evgeny Matveev, 17 Vladimir Botvinnikov, 18 Alexey Travkin, 19 Andrey
Garbuzov, 20 Alexander Shakirov, 21 Konstantin Rachkov, 22 Mikhail
Babaev
Australia:
15 James O'Connor, 14 Radike Samo, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill (captain), 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 James Slipper
Substitutes: 16 Tatafu Polota Nau, 17 Saia Fainga'a, 18 Salesi Ma’afu, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Rocky Elsom, 21 Will Genia, 22 Nick Phipps
