In terms of upsets, Krasny Yar’s defeat of Stade Francais at their Siberian home last week ranks alongside Japan’s victory over the Springboks and Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson. Granted, their unlikely win didn’t warrant as many column inches as a couple of events which saw sport’s tectonic plates temporarily realign, but for a motley crew of Russians, Moldovans, Georgians and a brace of Tongans to beat the reigning Challenge Cup holders still rates as a result right up at the pointy end of the sporting Richter scale.

Nor did the team from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk ride their luck during their European debut. In front of a sold-out crowd of 3,600 in the only purpose-built rugby arena in Russia east of the Urals, Krasny Yar came from 12-5 down to lead 24-12 at half-time and 34-29 at the final whistle. Like most great upsets its genesis lay as much in their casual arrogance of the favourites as in the underdogs’ unquenchable desperation to succeed. Throw in a bludgeoning old-school pack of behemoth forwards that scored all five of Krasny Yar’s tries and you get some sense of how events unfolded.

Seven thousand kilometres and six time zones to the west, no-one was more shocked by Krasny Yar’s famous victory than their next Challenge Cup opponents.