Russia men's national team head coach Michael McDermott has named his starting lineup to take on the USA on Saturday at Dick's Sporting Good Park in Denver.

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Captaining the team is fullback Vasily Artemyev, who currently plays for Krasny Yar in the Russian hotbed of Krasnoyarsk. Artemyev is a 75-cap veteran who has played professionally in the UK and was singled out by USA captain Blaine Scully as one of the players he knows well.

"Vasily is just a quality player," Scully said. "I have played against him and he's their captain and he's just very good and just indicative of the fact that while you might not know a lot of these players they can play. They also have a really big, physical back row."

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Russia's lineup features a mix of experienced players and a few youngsters, but for the most part, this is a battle-hardened team. Prop Evgeny Pronenko, flyhalf Yuri Kushnarev, center Sergey Trishin, center Dimity Gerasimov, and wing Mikhail Babev all join Artemyev with more than 50 caps. Kushnarev has 97 and is far and away Russia's all-time leading scorer.

But McDermott has also selected some youngsters, especially in the pack, where Bogdan Fedotko is only 23 and flankers Nikita Vavilin and Tagir Gadzhiev have been selected over older, more seasoned players. No. 8 Anton Rudoy, 35, is a solid block of granite. 

RUSSIA LINEUP

1. Valery Morozov (Yenisei-STM), 2. Stanislav Selskiy (Yenisei-STM), 3. Evgeny Pronenko (Yenisei-STM), 4. Bogdan Fedotko (Red Yar), 5. Evgeny Elgin (Yenisei-STM), 6. Nikita Vavilin (Slava Moscow), 7. Tagir Gadzhiev (Kuban), 8. Anton Rudoy (Yenisei-STM), 9. Konstantin Uzunov (Yenisei-STM), 10. Yuri Kushnarev (Yenisei-STM), 11. Alexey Mikhaltsov (Yenisei-STM), 12. Sergey Trishin (VVA Saracens), 13. Dmitry Gerasimov (Yenisei-STM), 14. Mikhail Babaev (VVA Saracens), 15. Vasily Artemyev (Krasny Yar) (C)

Replacements: 16. Yevgeny Matveyev (VVA Saracens), 17. Sergey Sekisov (VVA Saracens), 18. Anton Drozdov (VVA Saracens), 19. Andrei Garbuzov (Krasny Yar), 20. Dmitry Krotov (Yenisei-STM), 21. Vasily Dorofeev (Krasny Yar), 22. Cyril Golosnitsky (Krasny Yar), 23. Alexander Budychenko (Yenisei-STM)