FINLAND V ESTONIA - GAME PREVIEW

This Saturday sees something that we've been waiting for for some time now: Finland facing Estonia as part of formal competition. The two nations will meet at Myllypuro in their 2nd Rugby Europe Championship game.

The two sides have, of course, met before. Previous matches have been friendlies as part of the Baltic Rugby Partnership Shield (which I'm hoping will continue). In fact, Estonia currently hold the Shield, following their victory over the Finland A side in Turku in 2013. You can also watch the last time the main Finland side hosted Estonia way back in 2010 here, both game videos courtesy of Atsu at Warriors. It was Total Rugby's coverage of that game that alerted me to rugby in Finland not long after I arrived!

Both sides began their REC campaigns with a loss: Finland losing away to Norway 48-31, while Estonia were the first to face the experienced Hungary side, losing 5-53 at home (game film here).
Hungary have established themselves as the team to beat following two wins in two weeks. One week after easing past Estonia they took a 25-13 home win over Denmark, showing their resilience over similarly-seasoned opposition.

Unfortunately Finland's game was not recorded so there will be no game film to analyze but SRL Technical Director and Men's Team Manager, Stephen Whittaker, posted a brief match report on the SRL Facebook page.

Centre of attention: Finland centre Jussi Viljanen had a cracking game by all accounts.

Both Finland and Estonia will view the home and away games against each other as strong potential sources of points in the competition, but but sides are also playing their cards pretty close to their chests at the moment.

Finland Head Coach Isaac Visser had this to say ahead of the game:

After Norway and a depressing loss in the last 10 minutes we need to drag the positives. We had 22 of the 23 players Finnish blood and to me this is the way forward. Our team is developing and I felt that the first game of the season was an opportunity to strengthen our team by giving exposure to up and coming players from the domestic Championship season.

For Estonia I have made a few changes and, after watching them play against Hungary a few weeks back, they look like a hard team to beat and game plans needed to be altered.

Estonia will be coming out with passion and very strong with their new Kiwi born coach Ray. Finland will look to keep the foot down for full 80 minutes. Finland rugby is growing more and more and players are showing some real competition for the Jersey now. With the right combinations and executions on Saturday, I will be looking to walk away with a bonus point putting us 2nd on the group ladder under Hungary.

Finland's Karl Filtness supports Kalle Välimäki during the Norway clash

Estonia's Head Coach Ray Dickson is similarly upbeat:

We have trained hard to rectify our set-piece issues and I feel that we have done all that is possible to get on top of the technical things which, as you know, are extremely important. We are confident in ourselves that we will be far more competitive than against Hungary, where honestly I think we got stage fright . The guys are pumped and really looking forward to the contest . I feel the pressure lies with Suomi as they have the ranking and the resources . But we will not roll over. We will fight for everything and there will be no quarter taken or given. This is the Bledisloe cup of the Baltic Sea and we certainly are the underdogs in this fight.

Team Estonia: a team photo from one of their many recent training camps.

As neither team has announced a squad as of yet, we can only guess at what sort of game is coming. This leaves us with only the Estonia - Hungary game film for possible clues and indications:

•  While accuracy was pretty hit and miss, what was abundantly clear is that the Estonians are comfortable with running with the ball. 7s has for a long time playing a crucial role in the Estonian game, with their national side competing in the Rugby Europe 7s leagues, and you can see their eye for a gap. Finland will need to present a watertight defence and shut down opportunities earlier.
• Offloading could potentially be the difference between Estonian joy or misery: particularly in the 2nd half of the Hungary game, we saw offload attempts as a first choice over setting up a ruck. If Finland stay aware of this, there is a strong potential for disruption and turnover. However, if they give the Eestis the time and room to execute, then we would be inviting trouble.
• Coach Dickson's focus on set piece after the game is spot on. It's difficult to tell how much of it was Hungary's experience overwhelming them, but scrums and lineouts were a weakness. As scrums, in particular, have been a consistent strength of Finnish rugby, I would hope to see Finland opting to test the Estonian pack from penalties.
• Lastly, Finland need to keep their eyes open and stay aware of how Estonia are playing their game. From the Hungary game film, we see that Estonia's forwards do form pods, but they have a tendency to take the ball a long way behind the gain line, providing Finland an opportunity to steal easy meters with a simple press. On the flip side, Estonia are quick to form a defensive line BUT when the press comes, we see individuals shooting up at different speeds and leaving tempting gaps.

Game sheet from Estonia v Hungary

MATCH DETAILS

Full details can be found on the Facebook event page here. For those not on Facebook, the venue is Myllypuron urheilupuisto (Myllytontunpolku 1, 00920 Helsinki). Gates open at 12:00, with kickoff at 13:00. Entry is free, but donations at the gate will get you a match program.

There will be a LIVE STREAM of the game as well!

Elsewhere in the REC, Finland's old rivals Bosnia, now in Conference 2 South, suffered a loss away to Austria - you can find the match video here.