Wales cruise to emphatic Georgia win
WALES 18 GEORGIA 0
Wales eased the pressure on head coach Wayne Pivac with an emphatic Autumn Nations Cup win over Georgia in Llanelli.
Pivac made a raft of changes, with only flanker Justin Tipuric, who took over the captaincy, and full-back Liamwilliams remaining from the side soundly beaten by Ireland in their Autumn Nations Cup opener in Dublin.
Flanker James Botham, the grandson of England cricket great Sir Ian, scrum-half Kieran Hardy and centre Johnnywilliams made debuts, the latter two on their home Parc y Scarlets ground.
Williams’ appearance for the land of his Rhyl-born father came 17 months after he had made a Twickenham try-scoring appearance for England in an uncapped match against the Barbarians.
Callum Sheedy was the newest model to emerge from Wales’ famous fly-half factory, with the Bristol outside-half, like Louis ReesZammit, handed his first start.
Wales’ set-piece has struggled in recent games, but their scrum and lineout was strong in the opening exchanges and Sheedy profited from that superiority up front to land a 10th-minute penalty.
Despite the wet conditions, Wales were keen to play with ball in hand and Rees-zammit almost scored following Sheedy’s crossfield kick.
Rees-zammit did not have to wait long for his first Test try, though, centre Nick Tompkins driving towards the line after 26 minutes and recycling possession.
Sheedy floated a lovely pass to the waiting 19-year-old and then converted from the touchline for a 10-0 interval lead.
Georgia hooker Bregvadze was penalised for a high tackle on Seb Davies, but Sheedy missed the chance to extend Wales’ lead.
However, he made no mistake from in front of the posts after the visitors were caught offside.
Georgia were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when flanker Beka Saginadze caught Tipuric with a swinging forearm that led to his departure andwebb taking over the captaincy.
Webb accepted Rees-zammit’s pass four minutes from time to seal the win, but Wales know a far sterner test awaits them in Llanelli next weekend when Six Nations champions England are their final Group A opponents.