Georgian rugby - players

elefant wrote: »

That makes sense. Wasn't reading anything into it really, was just curious!
I thought it would have made sense to have both teams standing in the middle of the pitch, as in football, for fairness' sake. The Italian guy at the end must have been bricking it!

You can watch penalty shootout here :
against Ireland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vF7pNux8jE
against Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGMtaZO9Oqs

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High five for Georgia as World Cup preparations gather pace

Milton Haig believes Georgia's successful European Nations Cup campaign will stand them in good stead on a number of levels for Rugby World Cup 2015.

A fifth straight European Nations Cup title came with added bonuses for Georgia head coach Milton Haig.
A number of the country's young players seized their chance to impress before Rugby World Cup 2015 as the Lelos swept all before them again to retain the ENC trophy and move above Italy into 14th place in the World Rugby Rankings.
While pleased to remain the dominant force in the competition, New Zealander Haig, who took charge of Georgia post-RWC 2011, says it was more important that other objectives were met as part of the team’s preparations for this year’s showpiece event in England.
“Obviously we wanted to win the competition but the main objective for this tournament was looking at players for the World Cup. We wanted to see how new players who’d not featured much before, if at all, would get on in places like Madrid and Bucharest where we've always found it tough, and also what level some of the older guys coming back from injury were at,” he said.
“Over the last three years we’ve built up our squad depth quite nicely, but we felt we still needed a few more options out wide because our captain Irakli Machkhaneli, who has played over 70 tests, retired in November.
“A couple of new wingers came through – Giorgi Aptsiauri, a young full-back/wing, and Alex Khutsishvili, a big, strong boy who’s played sevens before but this was his first crack at 15s.”

Youngest ever?

Haig also tipped young scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze, from the Tbilisi-based Armazi Rugby Club, for a bright future.
“He’s an exciting talent, that’s for sure,” Haig said. “He’s actually come on a little bit quicker than we thought he would. Originally we only intended to play him in one of the games but he played in three, starting the last two against Russia and Romania. He played so well we simply couldn’t leave him out.”
If Lobzhanidze plays in any of Georgia’s Pool C matches at RWC 2015, the 18-year-old will replace USA Eagle Thretton Palermo as the youngest player to compete in the tournament’s history. Palermo was eight days past his 19th birthday when he took to the field against the Springboks in Montpellier at RWC 2007. Lobzhanidze’s 19th birthday, on 14 October, falls a few days before the quarter-finals.
Realistically, Georgia will need to beat one of the big two in Pool C, New Zealand and Argentina, to have any hope of still being in the tournament at that stage.
“We’re not even looking at that,” Haig added. “Argentina are eighth in the world and we are 14th. The reason they are eighth is because they regularly beat the teams immediately below them and sometimes, as we saw with their win against Australia in the Rugby Championship, they beat the teams ahead of them.
“But if we can get some momentum through our pre-competition games and play well in our first game against Tonga, then who knows what could happen. Still, we’d have to play really well and Argentina would have to have an off day for us to have any chance of tipping them over.
“Our goal is to win two matches and finish third in the group. Automatically qualifying for a World Cup is something we’ve never done before.”

RWC 2015 preparations gather pace

With less than six months to go before RWC 2015 kicks off, 50-year-old Haig admits the tournament will be on them before they know it.
“We’ve been really, really busy with World Cup timelines to work to in conjunction with our normal calendar,” he said. “Now the European Nations Cup is over, we’ll go through the review process and then I’ll be in France for a week or so, catching up with all of our players who are based there.
“The Tbilisi Cup in June will provide us with another opportunity to look at players, and from that point onwards we’ll be full on with our preparations right the way through to the end of the World Cup.
“We’ve got a 10-11 week training camp, part of which will be spent at an Olympic Sports Centre in Poland on the Baltic coast, before we return to Georgia, have a week off, and then head over to London where we’ll be based for our three warm-up games.
"We play Premiership side Newcastle, in Newcastle on 28 August, followed by games against Canada (at Esher) and Japan (in Gloucester).
“Our plans are reasonably finely-tuned but that’s the way we want it to be. Preparation is absolutely key for us.”


http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/news/63789

Davit Zirakashvili will start Heineken Cup final tomorrow with Clermont
Levan Chilachava is on the bench for Toulon



Also, this U20 extented squad to prepare Junior World Rugby Trophy
The team won over Clermont U22 28-22, and lost against georgian premiership side Armazi 26-29
Georgia U20 will face Fiji U20, Uruguay U20 and Portugal U20

Props :
Nick Neparidze (Locomotive Tbilisi)
Zaza Kharebava (La Rochelle, France)
Beka Kakabadze (Clermont, France)
Giorgi Melikidze (Kharebi Rustavi)
Nika Svimonishvili (Lelo Saracens)

Hookers :
Badri Alkhazashvili (Lelo Saracens)
Lasha Sajaia (Jiki Tbilisi)
Giorgi Tedoradze (TBC)

Locks :
Otar Giorgadze (Aia Kutaisi)
Roland Kvachadze (Aurillac, France)
Mikheil Babunashvili (Tarbes, France)
Tornike Zoidze (Clermont, France)

Backrow :
Davit Papavadze (Jiki Tbilisi)
Tornike Bubuteishvili (Lelo Saracens)
Giorgi Tsutsqiridze (Brive, France)
Jora Mghebrishvili (Kharebi Rustavi)

Scrumhalves :
Vasil Lobzhanidze (Armazi Tbilisi) - 5 caps
Temur Tutberidze (Aia Kutaisi)
Givi Losaberidze (Aia Kutaisi)

Flyhalves :
Revaz Jinchvelashvili (Aia Kutaisi) - 1 cap
Giorgi Babunashvili (Aia Kutaisi)

Centres :
Badri Liparteliani (Armazi Tbilisi)
Giorgi Koshadze (Kharebi Rustavi)
Sandro Iluridze (Academia Tbilisi)
Temur Iremadze (Aia Kutaisi)
Giorgi Kveselidze (Iunkerebi)

Back three :
Irakli Svanidze (Jiki Tbilisi)
Rati Shanidze (Lelo Saracens)
Davit Gulitashvili (Kharebi Rustavi)
Ioseb Kikvadze (Aia Kutaisi)
Anzor Sichinava (Academia Tbilisi)

sydneybound wrote: »

I think Georgia will easily win the JWCT. The one thing about that squad is I'd like to see a few more backs with good (French) clubs.

I hope so.
Here is the JWRT final squad

Props
Nika Neparidze (Locomotive Tbilisi)
Beka Kakabadze (Clermont, France)
Giorgi Melikidze (Kharebi Rustavi)
Nika Svimonishvili (Lelo Saracens)

Hookers
Badri Alkhazashvili (Lelo Saracens)
Lasha Sajaia (Jiki Tbilisi)

Locks
Otar Giorgadze (Aia Kutaisi)
Roland Kvachadze (Aurillac, France)
Mikheil Babunashvili (Tarbes, France)
Tornike Zoidze (Clermont, France)

Backrow
Davit Papavadze (Jiki Tbilisi)
Tornike Bubuteishvili (Lelo Saracens)
Giorgi Tsutskiridze (Brive, France)
Beka Gorgadze (Mont-de-Marsan, France)

Scrumhalves
Vasil Lobzhanidze (Armazi Tbilisi - 5 caps)
Temur Tutberidze (Aia Kutaisi)

Flyhalves
Revaz Jinchvelashvili (Aia Kutaisi - 1 cap)
Giorgi Babunashvili (Aia Kutaisi)

Centres
Badri Liparteliani (Armazi Tbilisi)
Giorgi Koshadze (Kharebi Rustavi)
Giorgi Kveseladze (Iunkerebi)

Back Three
Irakli Svanidze (Jiki Tbilisi)
Rati Shanidze (Lelo Saracens)
Davit Gulitashvili (Kharebi Rustavi)
Ioseb Kikvadze (Aia Kutaisi)
Anzor Sichinava (Academia Tbilisi)

The forward pack looks very strong!
prop Zaur Kharebava from La Rochelle, who was in the extented squad is not in the final squad.
Hooker Alkhazashvili started both games for Tbilisi Caucasians in European Challenge Cup qualifying.
Also, lock Gogoladze from Tarbes is missing but Otar Giorgadze was a regular starter for Georgia U19 while the three other locks plays in France.
In the back row, Papavadze is promising, Gorgadze and Tsutsqiridze are playing in France
Both half-backs, Lobzhanidze and Jinchvelashvili are already capped by Georgia national senior team.
I don't really know the centres but Liparteliani is a regular starter for Armazi.
In the back-three, Svanidze and Kikvadze showed some good skills.

Very interesting article, thanks for the link

In other news, Toulon's lock Konstantin Mikautadze will play for Barbarians against Ireland

Swiwi. wrote: »

I must say, I'm impressed by the life in this thread. Which is a credit to your enthusiasm for Georgian rugby croket. I'll be quite keen to watch the Georgian vs Argentinian pool match, I think this will be a good barometer of where Georgia stand. I think bringing in a NZ coach was a good idea, not much need to tell the forwards anything, but backplay no doubt can be improved. Based on the trends in world rugby, I expect Georgia to probably be in the top 10 Nations within the next few years. You're currently 14th, behind Japan, Tonga & Fiji with Scotland in 10th. I'd say a 3rd place finish in Pool C, with victories over Namibia and Tonga is very do-able, and who knows, on a really good day, a shock result over Los Pumas.

Thanks Siwiwi!

2 georgian players will not play the RWC :

Loosehead prop Davit Khinchagishvili from Racing Metro (32 years old, 44 caps) announced his retirement from international rugby.
Though, his last game for Georgia was in November 2013, he was often injured last two seasons


Hooker Irakli Natriashvili (31 years old, 40 caps) signed to Clermont as additional player during the RWC.
He played for Brive from 2011 to 2013 but was seriously injured with a long recovery. He was back this season at Tulle in Federale1 (french third division) and did well so he found a Top14 contract but only for the duration of the RWC. I think he would have been be the third choice at hooker behind Mamukashvili (Sale Sharks) and Zhvania (Stade Français) for the RWC



In other news,
- Georgia forwards coach, the frenchman Didier Bes, signed to Clermont. This year he was Montpellier forwards coach, in addition to his job for Georgia. He will join Clermont after the RWC.

- loosehead prop Val Rapava-Ruskin (born 1992) won RFU Championship with Worcester. He started both legs of the final. A good prospect for the future

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Line up for the first Emerging Georgia game

1- Archil Bejiashvili (Locomotive Tbilisi)
2- Jaba Bregvadze (Kochebi Bolnisi) - 24 caps
3- Nikoloz Khatiashvili (Aurillac)
4- Nodar Cheishvili (La Seyne)
5- Sandro Koiava (Lelo Saracens)
6- Givi Berishvili (capt, Locomotive Tbilisi) - 18 caps
7- Dachi Kopadze (Lelo Saracens)
8- Vakhtang Amiranashvili (Armazi Tbilisi)
9- Vazha Khutsishvili (Kharebi Rustavi) - 16 caps
10- Mamuka Ninidze (Jiki Gori) - 2 caps
11- Ioseb Kikvadze (Aia Kutaisi)
12- Giorgi Talakhadze (Lelo Saracens)
13- Giorgi Pruidze (Aia Kutaisi)
14- Irakli Gegenava (Kochebi Bolnisi)
15- Levan Gogolashvili (Kochebi Bolnisi)

16- Giorgi Tedoradze (Universiteti Tbilisi)
17- Irakli Mirtskhulava (Tarbes) - 5 caps
18- Zurab Julakidze (Lelo Saracens)
19- Guram Shengelia (Jiki Gori)
20- Mikheil Gachechiladze (Carqueiranne-Hyères)
21- Sandro Mindiashvili (Lelo Saracens)
22- Revaz Jinchvelashvili (Aia Kutaisi) - 1 cap
23- Irakli Svanidze (Jiki Gori)
24- Davit Papavadze (Jiki Gori)