Russia will look to build on a promising work-out against Northampton Saints when they face the Dragons on Tuesday.
Promising signs in opening loss to Northampton
Russia will look to build on a promising work-out against Northampton Saints when they face the Dragons on Tuesday.
The Bears opened up their pre-World Cup tour of the UK with a 54-19 defeat - although the Russians will have learned a lot against the beaten Heineken Cup finalists.
Northampton's greater fitness and ability to take advantage of a man advantage - when they scored three tries while flanker Mikhail Sidorov was in the sin-bin - ultimately proved to be crucial.
Andrey Kuzin and Denis Antonov both crossed for tries, while the tourists were awarded a penalty score when Sergey Sugrobov was taken out off the ball after hacking the ball up the pitch.
Northampton were able to take full advantage of the quality in their squad as they played different line-ups in each half.
However Franklin's Gardens got a glimpse of new signing Vasily Artemyev as he appeared on the wing for the Bears.
Russia will follow up their clash with the Dragons with games against the Ospreys (August 21) and Gloucester (August 26) before heading to New Zealand.
