A quick word about Georgia

And no, that word is not 'turnips', 'boredom', 'incomprehensible', 'Putin' or 'bearhurling'.

Georgia has been quietly improving its game and are moving into the territory where they are shaping to take down one of the bigger beasts in the jungle.

In the recent international series, Georgia posted the following results, having travelled to the Pacific Islands for the first time:

- 11 June: Samoa 19 - 19 Georgia (Apia Park, Samoa)
- 18 June: Tonga 20 - 23 Georgia (Suva, Fiji)
- 24 June: Fiji 3 - 14 Georgia (Suva, Fiji)

This now means that:

- Georgia have now beaten all of the Tier 2 rugby nations (Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, USA, Uruguay, Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Spain)
- Georgia are now ranked 11th in the world
- This ranks them higher than Japan, Italy, Samoa, Tonga and the USA
- Georgia has now played in 4 RWCs and has automatically qualified for Japan 2019
- They have now won the European Nations Cup (i.e. the Tier 2 version of the 6 Nations) nine times in 2001, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Well done to the Lelos is all that I'm saying.

But more seriously, great set of results.

Well done Gerogia BUT they did struggle against what were basically "A" teams for the PIs. Fiji and Samoa are still the premier tier 2 nations but Georgia are quickly catching up.

Do they have a lot of players in the T14?

yappysnap wrote:Do they have a lot of players in the T14?

Yes, an increasing number and also a lot in the Pro D2 in France.

Even leaving aside outliers like Mamuka Gorgodze, all of their props, some other forwards and a number of their backline players play for Jeff, Pro 12 or good French sides like Stade, Bayonne, Brive, Agen, Aurillac, Tarbes, etc.

Not glamorous, but they get very good experience.

They've got the mighty Scotland in the AIs, which will be a physical battle and a half. We're going to need to turn up - not room for complacency.

Is Richie Dixon still their coach?

For the last couple of years Milton Haigh from Southland has been coaching them.