Samoa survived being reduced to 13 men for almost 10 minutes in the first half and struggled to overcome a limited and exhausted Russia team to open their Pool A campaign with a bonus-point 34-9 victory at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium on Tuesday.

The Pacific islanders scored six tries but did themselves no favours in a scrappy game that saw Rey Lee-Lo and Motu Matu’u shown yellow cards for high tackles within two minutes of each other, while Russia’s Kirill Gotovtsev was also sinbinned for a similar offence.

“It was a tough game, we knew the Russians were going to come in the first 20-40 minutes, we just had to stick it out and I’m really proud of the way the boys came back in the second half. We’re here to create a legacy,” captain Chris Vui said in a pitchside interview.

They will have to be a lot more accurate to stand any chance of matching the trailblazing Samoan quarter-finalists of the 1990s with Scotland, Japan and Ireland to come, even after some impressively worked tries for Lee-Lo, Afaesetiti Amosa and two each for wingers Alapati Leiua and Ed Fidow.

After going at Japan hard in the tournament’s opening game and giving the hosts a scare in the process, Russia set out with the same game plan and again found themselves in the lead early on in front of a crowd packed with enthusiastic local fans.

The noticeably fresher Samoans struck first though after a fine skip pass from Clermont Auvergne’s Tim Nanai-Williams found Leiua and the Bristol man, who shifted to the wing in a late injury-enforced change, jinked his way over in the corner.

But the Russian setpiece and kicking game that concerned Samoa coach Steve Jackson before kick off tested his side’s discipline and as the penalty count ticked up, Russia flyhalf Yury Kushnarev knocked two over for a 6-5 lead.

Russia were unable to make anything from the two-man advantage and when Amosa put the Samoans back in front with a try just after the break and Gotvotsev was yellow carded the match quickly turned and the tries stacked up.