Yenisei

Yet by the time the Dawn reached the Customs House on Vasil'evskii Island, it bore only four of the five crew members who had set out from the Enisei River on 9 August.

After a convincing win over the Royal Navy last week that saw RGC 1404 with the vast majority of possession, the first 10 minutes on Wednesday proved to be an entirely different story, as the lion's share of possession and territory went to Enisei.

"The two games against Enisei offered a massive physical challenge against a very big group of guys and they carried hard from minute one to minute 80.

Enisei finally broke the deadlock when their pressure was rewarded by replacement Anton Sychev ploughing over from closerange.

But any inklings of a procession were quickly thwarted as Enisei began to assert some real dominance at the scrum.

No 1 Tiger Woods RUGBY UNION: RGC 1404 on their way to a 24-21 win over Russian side Enisei at Eirias Park last night

Three from Sale, Racing 92, Castres, Montpellier CHALLENGE CUP TEAMS Confirmed (17) Wasps, Bristol, Worcester, Leicester, London Irish, Stade Francais, Bordeaux Begles, Toulon, Pau, Agen, Cardiff Blues, Scarlets, Edinburgh, Dragons, Zebre, Calvisano, Enisei.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game, and that Enisei would be a more difficult proposition over here.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game today and Enisei would be a more difficult proposition over here in Georgia than they had been at Kingston Park last week.

With Enisei leading 10-7 at the break, Kushnarev then hit a penalty and soon landed another from the halfway line as the hosts built up a nine-point cushion.

But Yury Kushnarev kicked two penalties for the hosts to build up a nine-point advantage and, although replacement prop Biyi Alo crossed for Worcester, a Ramel Gaisin drop goal sealed Enisei's win.

In a boost for Schmidt, Robbie Henshaw played a try-scoring role in their 47-5 demolition of Enisei at the Sportsground on his return from injury on Saturday.

And it's that talent that he will be wary of when he oversees Russian outfit Enisei's match against RGC 1404 at Eirias Park tonight (7.30pm).

Craig Willis replaces Joel Hodgson at fly-half in the sixth and final round of group games, Newcastle already assured of a home quarter-final on Easter weekend following Sunday's 64-7 home win over Enisei.