Matiashvili stars as Georgians fire warning to Wales

THE Georgians hammered out a six try warning to Wales ahead of their clash at the Principality Stadium on Saturday as they beat Canada 54-22 in Tbilisi.

Full-back Soso Matiashvili scored a Georgian record 34 points in the game as he helped himself to two tries and kicked 24 points to make it a quickfire double over the Canucks having beaten them in the summer.

Canadian skipper Phil Mack did his best to try to inspire his side and sparked two of the three tries by the visitors with quick tap penalties. Taylor Paris got the first and then DTH van der Merwe crossed for the other to raise his Canadian try record to 26.

The third try came on the hour from outside-half Bruce Staller, who also kicked the rest of the points for Canada. That closed the gap to 40-22, but two more home tries in the final ten minutes sealed another notable triumph for Milton Haig’s side.

Matiashvili opened the scoring in the second minute after a pin-point cross kick left a gaping hole in the defence. He added the conversion, kicked three penalties and put over a second conversion of a driving maul try on the stroke of half-time.

The powerful Georgian scrum turned up the herat and Toulon prop Levan Chilichava burrowed over.

Merab Sharikadze grabbed a charge down try and Matiashvili scored before replacement prop Kakha Asieshvili touched down the final try.