GONE IN 130 SECONDS!
Wales score their fastest ever World Cup try in Georgia rout
WHO needs an attack coach? Wales were without one for three days this week — after Rob Howley was sent home in disgrace for alleged betting offences — but a set of three scores in 20 minutes set their World Cup in motion at last.
In truth, Howley’s prints were all over those tries, which put Wales 22-0 up and into cruise control, with delicious set-plays. OK, Georgia practically waved Wales through, but it was a strong start.
The first — after 130 seconds — came when Gareth Davies threw a double miss-pass from a scrum to namesake Jonathan who went in untouched. It was Wales’s fastest World Cup try.
The second, after Dan Biggar had ridiculously missed the first conversion in front of the posts by hitting one of them and then made amends with a penalty, started with Josh Adams.
He picked a glorious line off Biggar to waltz through the absent Georgia defence, then fed Gareth Davies, who jinked on.
The scrum-half was felled, the Georgia defensive tide swept right, and Justin Tipuric went straight through an unguarded ruck to score.
The third had a similar set-up — Adams through again but this time he had enough to score a first World Cup try himself. Bang, bang, bang — goodnight Georgia. Back in Bridgend, if he was watching, Howley would have been smiling.
‘It was definitely strange without Rob,’ said Warren Gatland afterwards, having spent 11 years and nearly 120 Tests alongside Howley with Wales. ‘It’s like when you lose a key player. We’ve lost a couple of them before we came on tour, with Gareth Anscombe and Taulupe Faletau.
‘You just have to draw a line in the sand and move on. You can’t change what’s happened. I said to the players beforehand, I thought they’d been outstanding this week.
‘The way they’ve prepared for this match, the way they’ve trained, the way the senior players have stepped up — everyone was really looking forward to getting out on the pitch tonight.
‘Stephen (Jones) has come in and those were plays we have in our play-book, so it was pleasing we executed a number of set-piece opportunities.’
The initial fire and fury died, though. Georgia recovered admirably from their early capitulation with Giorgi Kveseladze on the left wing, 20-year-old fly-half Tedo Abzhandadze and Soso Matiashvili looking decent, but their attack was, well, so-so.
Gareth Davies was lucky not to have been sin-binned when a slap- down to deny a possible Georgia score was adjudged to have not even been a knock-on.
Having weathered a mini-storm, where Los Lelos pulverised a couple of scrums, Liam Williams scored the bonus-point try on the left, getting on the end of a lovely move where Gareth Davies looped around Ken Owens, and Jonathan Davies flung out a wide ball into the gaping space for the full-back to collect.
That was a half to end a week of woe. After the resumption, Georgia did show some ‘fighting spirit’, as their captain Mikheil Nariashvili later noted. They managed to draw the second half 14-14 as Wales slowed.
It took them going back to what they do best to score twice. First, a massive maul sent Shalva Mamukashvili over to cheers from the Toyota City crowd.
But when Jaba Bregvadze brought down a maul at the other end 30 seconds after coming on, the resurgence was quelled. At least Georgia did well to not concede a point in the 10 minutes the hooker was off.
However, when he returned, Wales took a fifth try. On the right George North kicked a superb grubber behind the Georgia defence. It bobbled up for Tomos Williams, who scored.
Montpellier man Levan Chilachava then led a monstrous scrum to force the penalty, Georgia tapped quickly and three phases later the man who started it all bashed over to score.
North had time to surge through for a sixth Welsh try late on — it had less guile than the triple salvo at the start, but despite a midmatch lull, Wales will be happy with their night.
WALES: L Williams 7 (Halfpenny 60min, 7); North 7, J Davies 8, Parkes 7.5, Adams 7.5; Biggar 7.5 (Patchell 67, 6), G Davies 8 (T Williams 48, 7.5); W Jones 6 (Smith 56, 5), Owens 7 (Dee 56, 5), Francis 6 (Lewis 47, 5); Ball 7 (Shingler 62, 6), AW Jones 7.5; Wainwright 7 (Moriarty 52, 6), Navidi 7, Tipuric 8. GEORGIA: Matiashvili; Modebadze, Kacharava, Mchedlidze (Khmaladze 77), Kveseladze; Abzhandadze, Lobzhanidze (Aprasidze 59); Nariashvili (Bregvadze, 47), Mamukashvili (Gogichashvili 58), Gigashvili (Chilachava, 47); Nemsadze, Mikautadze (Sutiashvili, 51); Tkhilaishvili, M Gorgodze (Giorgadze, 60), B Gorgodze.