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24th September 2019
03:00pm BST

Nearly 25 minutes in and the warm conditions began to take a toll on the players. Nevertheless, a few moments later, Russia were awarded a penalty at the break down and Kushnarev promptly stepped up to convert to give Russia the lead for the first time in the game.
28 minutes in and referee Romain Poite found himself reviewing a possible foul on Artemyev by Samoan centre Rey Lee-Lo. Following a lengthy consultation, Lee-lo was sin-binned with a yellow card leaving Russia with a man advantage.
Two minutes later and captain Artemyev found himself tackled by yet another on-rushing Samoan. This time the crunching blow was delivered by hooker Motu Matu'u, which led to yet another review. Samoa found themselves two men down as Matu'u was yellow carded for his high tackle.
As half-time approached, the Bears didn't seem to take advantage of their extra men and conceded a penalty instead. With four minutes left in the first half, Pisi stepped up and missed, squandering a chance to offer his side the lead.
The gong signalled the end to a fairly engrossing first half as Russia found themselves leading at the break (6-5) for the first time in their entire World Cup history.
Keeping in line with the tempo of the game , just two minutes later, Ed Fidow collected a superb pass from Ray Niuia before sliding past the Russian defence to finish under the posts. This time, Pisi duly converted to take the Samoans eight points clear with around 30 minutes left in the half.
Samoa began to impose themselves on the game and in the 53rd minute, Fidow got in on the act again with his second try of the night after the his teammates swept the ball out left. It teed up Fidow to blaze past the Russian defence and, once again, Pisi converted to take the score to 9-24 to Samoa.
Russia appeared to tire and were struggling to contain the Samoan powerhouse. With less than 20 minutes to go before full-time, Samoa put the result beyond any doubt with a try from centre Lee-Lo. A missed conversion by Pisi put the score at 9-29 to Samoa.
Finishing with a flurry, Samoa secured a try in the 80th minute courtesy of Leiua, who sprinted past Artemyev on the touchline to touch down on the right for a final scoreline of 34-9 to Samoa.
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And so it finished at Kumagaya Stadium. Samoa got their World Cup campaign off to a flyer with a bonus point win and will fancy their chances against Scotland next, but they will need to improve their discipline.
Russia, meanwhile, continue to search for their first win with a daunting clash against Ireland coming up and might feel hard done by with the officiating as perhaps both Lee-Lo and Matu'u should have been sent off for those high tackles on Artemyev in the first half.