Georgia (Lelos)

[GeoRugby Profile]

Is there any news on Zhvania? Has he recovered from his injury? Is he playing at any level in England? If he is healthy and not getting a chance to play, maybe he could come back to Georgia. I would like to see him back in the national team.

[tryman Profile]

I do not understand what the selection of Todua was about... he was terrible in every match he played for the last 5 years minimum and he is old. Today he was at his worst, right from the start. Why do we field players like him? Any person in Georgia that has two legs and can walk would have had a better performance than him today. Why don't we develop young players on these positions where we had nightmares for centuries?

Thought matiashvili at fullback was particularly bad yesterday. Fullback has often been a position Georgia struggle to fill. Fiji targeted Abzhandadze on many occasions, obviously a lightweight 10 they ran over him easily. Saying this it was easier to defend against ireland than those big strong Fijian backs hungry to play after nearly a month in camp. I still think these four games were wonderful for Georgia and the more people in the home nations get used to playing them they’ll become a normal opposition like Fiji/Samoa.

Todua a great Georgian servant however well short of international standard.

On another note, not long till some of the squad are back together for February’s games.

[datodato Profile]

Yes Todua *was* a great servant (until 5 years ago), also he plays for Lelo Saracens, the Georgian coaches club and has not played a single game I can remember where he played well. Of course it is not the case that we have 100 players waiting around at fullback or wing that are better than him, but he is 33 and by the time of the RWC 2023 he will be 36 and although we have made some idiotic choices in the past letting Kacharava (who could not pass the ball with his 2m biceps radius well into his 30s) play at the last RWC, maybe we should look at some players from the new generation, this is why I am asking what the point is to let Todua play, given he is 33 years old, if this tournament is about development? Why not Matiashvili on the wing and the young guy at fullback?

[FLIDTA RISXVA Profile Website]

TODWA and KHMALADZE both hail from LELO
and obviously are favored by MAISA

but recently they have been playing for BATUMI:
KHMALADZE -- since autumn 2017
TODWA -- since autumn 2018

:::

[2blackrooks Profile]

I think overall Georgia did themselves proud, ok they showed little imagination in there first couple of games, but Ireland was a different story, playing more open running rugby.
What matters is what they learn from these games and move forward, results didn't mean much.
As with all tier 2 teams, you just don't get the time like tier 1 teams to prepare for games like these.
Hopefully Georgia gets more opportunities to play higher level games but I doubt it, Georgia Romania etc should be pushing World Rugby for more chances so to level up the playing field

[fullbackace Profile]

Yes Todua *was* a great servant (until 5 years ago), also he plays for Lelo Saracens, the Georgian coaches club and has not played a single game I can remember where he played well. Of course it is not the case that we have 100 players waiting around at fullback or wing that are better than him, but he is 33 and by the time of the RWC 2023 he will be 36 and although we have made some idiotic choices in the past letting Kacharava (who could not pass the ball with his 2m biceps radius well into his 30s) play at the last RWC, maybe we should look at some players from the new generation, this is why I am asking what the point is to let Todua play, given he is 33 years old, if this tournament is about development? Why not Matiashvili on the wing and the young guy at fullback?

Plenty of people have been tested on the wing and to be frank Todua beat them fair and square. The guy's a proper workhorse and a professional which can't be said for many others. Hence why so many coaches relied on them. He had a bad game but lets not forget the conditions and the opposition.

[CraigChalmers Profile]

I'm starting to think this whole covid thing might have unintended and welcomed benefits. They could add Russia on the list too and play 3 weeks in Eastern Europe.

Not sure this is anything to do with Covid to be honest - more a reflection of the tours Scotland have had in recent years. We haven't toured a T1 nation in 10 years! (though were supposed to in 2020) We have even been quite generous in allow T2 sides to beat us..

There was chat of Scotland playing in Romania and Georgia next summer even before the 2019 RWC (There was a suggestion at one stage Japan may be involved too). Really hope it does happen, and conditions allow spectators - aside from the benefit to both countries of getting a home test v tier 1 opposition, could be a great trip as a Scotland fan!

[GeoRugby Profile]

Giorgi Kveseladze joins Gloucester rugby. Congrats. Amazing for a Georgian back.

https://www.facebook.com/gloucesterrugby/

[tryman Profile]

Giorgi Kveseladze joins Gloucester rugby. Congrats. Amazing for a Georgian back.

https://www.facebook.com/gloucesterrugby/

Amazing news. That try against Ireland made people sit up and notice.

[carbonero Profile]

Argentina to host Georgia in July > https://www.elciudadanoweb.com/el-calen ... s-en-2021/

Busy month for the Lelos: one REC game, Scotland and Argentina. The Pumas will be vulnerable in July without their best European players but Georgia’s squad might be depleted as well. Maybe Spain or Russia should lobby to get that game. Most T2s have qualifiers in those dates.

[tryman Profile]

With these fixtures we can now put to bed that Georgia do not play Tier 1 opposition. Given their recent games against the best plus Argentina & Scotland coming up they’ll look forward to playing and then winning some REC games.

[tryman Profile]

Is there any news on Zhvania? Has he recovered from his injury? Is he playing at any level in England? If he is healthy and not getting a chance to play, maybe he could come back to Georgia. I would like to see him back in the national team.

He was a replacement against the Dragons in the European Cup on Dec 12th. Wasps would have brought a weakened team to Newport. His previous game was again as a replacement last February. In the last year he’s been a replacement twice so there must be injury issues. The season prior he had a fantastic year. I could be wrong but think he could have had some discipline issues too, open to correction.

Still only turned 29 and would be on a decent six figure contract at Wasps, hope he’s saving up for a nice house back in Georgia in retirement.

[GeoRugby Profile]

Playing Argentina would be nice. Scotland game hasn't been confirmed yet to my knowledge.

[BigG Profile]

Playing Argentina would be nice. Scotland game hasn't been confirmed yet to my knowledge.

None of those games are officially confirmed.

[2blackrooks Profile]

Is there still plans for a Georgian domestic team to enter the Currie cup?
And the partnership with S Africa RU going ahead

[BigG Profile]

Is there still plans for a Georgian domestic team to enter the Currie cup?
And the partnership with S Africa RU going ahead

It is in the agenda.

[GeoRugby Profile]

GRU finally held an election and Irakli Abuseridze (former national tam scrum half) became a president. There was so much drama in the past year within the union, but regardless how people feel about Abuseridze, I hope the fighting within GRU can stop and they can all come together for the good of Georgian rugby.

[beber Profile]

Lasha Jaiani to Wasps!

[FLIDTA RISXVA Profile Website]

fighting within GRU can stop

NO signs of abating:

NOTORIOUS CLAN managed to block recognition
of election results via National Registry
at 23.30 on WED 06/01/2021 -- in order
to congratulate rugby folks just before orthodox xmas

:::

[GeoRugby Profile]

Lasha Jaiani to Wasps!

Very happy for Lasha.

fighting within GRU can stop

NO signs of abating:

NOTORIOUS CLAN managed to block recognition
of election results via National Registry
at 23.30 on WED 06/01/2021 -- in order
to congratulate rugby folks just before orthodox xmas

:::

I never thought there were so many enemies of Georgian rugby within GRU. I hope what happened in Romanian rugby in the early 2000's doesn't repeat in GRU.

[tryman Profile]

Lasha Jaiani to Wasps!

It’s great news, hopefully he gets some game time. You would expect Georgia to be full of good second rows but this isn’t the case so I really hope this young man develops into a good senior player.

Here’s a bit more information about him.
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport ... evlMsyoBpY