Slava

The ground sits between a green park and a line of tall apartment blocks. What stands out is the new surface, a flat expanse of **artificial** turf that stretches right to the edge of the concrete.

This is **Slava Stadium**, a place that has been here since 1939. It is the home of the **Slava Rugby Club**. The capacity is small, just 1,300 seats. The stadium fell silent for a time during the major reconstruction, but the floodlights are back in full training and the lights are on.

The air here feels different from the big stadiums on the outskirts of the city. There are no mountains of fans, just a few hundred people on a cold evening, **camped in the final third** and shouting instructions. The surface is synthetic and it does not forgive, so the players **kept them in it** with careful passing. There is a bench outside the red tennis courts that runs alongside the fence, a quiet spot for a coach to watch the **backs against the wall** defence.

It is not a grand arena, but it is a place where the game is played without the fuss. The groundsman **settled them down** after a heavy rain by checking the drainage, and the players arrived early to warm up. The bookmakers are pricing a low-scoring game when the wind comes off the field, but tonight the hosts **turned to the kids** in the squad because they were short on options. Things came to a head in the last ten minutes, but the club have kept their nerve.