Scott Williams? Who’s that?
What happened when laid back Sam Burgess was asked about his big Welsh rival? He cheekily replied...
IT’S the biggest Anglo-Welsh collision at Twickenham for years and controversial England selection Sam Burgess may just have stoked up the World Cup fire to white hot. Asked by a TV questioner what he thought of Wales centre Scott Williams (inset) saying he would rather play against Burgess than Jonathan Joseph, who is injured, the rugby league convert replied with a wry look: ‘Scott Williams? Who’s that?’ Wales fans went into social media meltdown mode, and it should bring matters nicely to the boil for tomorrow’s ferocious Pool A clash.
ONE of the stars of this World Cup is a thin, shy billionaire with an astonishing collection of Picassos, flamingos and zebras. He may, possibly, show up in his helicopter before the tournament is over — he comes with little forewarning — and his name is Bidzina Ivanishvili. In his glass-and-steel fortress in the mountains overlooking Tbilisi, Georgia, the self-made Ivanishvili is his country’s richest man and former prime minister. On his wall hangs the Dora Maar with Cat. It’s a copy; the real one, bought from Sotheby’s for £60million, is stashed away in London.
Fifty-nine and a father of four, including two albino sons, one of whom, Bera, is a rapper, Ivanishvili regularly does yoga and has just one meal a day. His parsimonious eating habits are conspicuously outstripped by the generosity of his philanthropy. He is said to send £80 a month to every person in his home village of Chorvila and £1,200 plus wedding costs if anyone there gets married. He funded the building of Tbilisi’s largest cathedral, is planning to rehouse the Tbilisi zoo that was swept away by the recent floods, and pays salaries to many hundreds of actors and ballerinas.
More relevant to us, he is the sugar daddy of Georgian rugby. Using his personal fortune, Ivanishvili has had built two state-of-the-art academies in Tbilisi and Kutaisi. In all, 23 facilities will be built by 2017, when the country hosts the World Under 20 Championship.
So nobody could have been prouder than Ivanishvili when Georgia beat Tonga 17-10 in their opening Pool C match, having beaten only Romania and Namibia in previous World Cups.
Their target, according to head coach Milton Haig, is to finish third in the group — supposedly behind New Zealand and Argentina. ‘Third means we automatically qualify for the next tournament in Japan. We want to be a top-10 nation inside five years.’
Georgia face Argentina at Gloucester today, offering them a chance to outrun their own timetable and make the knockout stages. As usual the players will huddle in the dressing room, lock arms and say the Lord’s Prayer. An icon of St George or the Virgin Mary will be on display. Some will scribble a cross on their wrist strapping. They are predominantly a Christian Orthodox nation of four million people, situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and surrounded by Islamic neighbours.
Rugby has officially been played in Georgia for 56 years. However, they have been running with balls long before William Webb Ellis ran off with the idea.
The team’s nickname — the Lelos — comes from Lelo-burti, or Lelo-ball, an ancient, free-for-all folk game. Still played in the western part of the country, its roots are pagan: the ball symbolised the sun, one of the seven celestial bodies worshipped in medieval times.
Lelo-ball was adopted by the Orthodox Church, whose priests blessed the red leather ball — filled with local wine — and threw it to the players at Easter. Village against village, or husbands against bachelors, or tribe against tribe, the aim was to carry the ball to a set place — the Lelo. The word still means try.
Today 70 per cent of the squad, led by Mamuka Gorgodze of Toulon, earn their living in France. Their 18-year-old scrumhalf Vasil Lobzhanidze is the youngest player in the tournament’s history. For now at least, he is still playing in Georgia. ‘He is just the tip of the iceberg — one of a number of players now prepared in the modern way,’ said former Scotland and Georgia head coach Richie Dixon, sitting in the team’s Gloucester hotel.
Now World Rugby’s high performance consultant looking after Georgia and Romania, Dixon says the sport’s governing body should be saluted for their development of tier two nations — the likes of Fiji, Japan, Tonga, USA and Canada — by funding events such as the Tbilisi Cup, which ensures that such teams play each other regularly.
Georgia have won the ‘Six Nations B’ — the European Nations Cup — for the last five years and their aim is to join the Six Nations. ‘It may not happen before 2019,’ said Dixon. ‘But if teams like Georgia are making it into the quarter-finals, it will help their case. Georgia are getting there, and it’s good for the game.’