CHRIS HEWETT
Gorgadze is top class, Georgia just need another 14 like him
Watching Beka Gorgadze play England and Wales on his own was an interesting experience, the young Georgian No.8’s carrying and tackling and organising and all-round stand-up-to-be-countedness confirming him as a back rower of undisputed international quality. Which is good news for Georgia. One down, just the 14 to go.
The lazy name for it is “Sergio Parisse Syndrome” – shorthand for the extreme challenge faced by a star turn who invariably takes the field against top-tier opposition in the knowledge that the best he can hope for is a complete and utter towelling.
But “SPS” is in no way an accurate description of Gorgadze’s situation. For all Parisse’s heroics in unsuccessful Italian sides over a barely imaginable stretch of 17 years – 142 Tests, 106 defeats – the great man could always catch a whiff of genuine talent around him if he inhaled deeply enough.
On current evidence, Gorgadze is not in that position. Far from it. He is out there on his Jack Jones, and the fact that he catches the eye as often as he does marks him out as a proper player. Here, in homage to his Lone Ranger forerunners, is a team of those who somehow found the wherewithal to play Ritz-level rugby in a team of Travelodgers.
15 Vasily Artemyev (Russia): His side conceded damned near 200 points in four outings at the 2011 World Cup, yet the Muscovite’s mastery was enough to secure a Premiership contract with Northampton.
14 Takudzwa Ngwenya (USA): In a story of the tortoise and the hare, how does Bryan Habana, of all people, get to be the bloke carrying his own house on his back? By going up against someone with REAL pace, that’s how. Ngwenya’s burning of the great Springbok in 2007 secured him a professional career with Biarritz when they were a serious power in the European game.
13 To’o Vaega (Samoa): There were no Pat Lams, Junior Paramores or Frank Bunces available when Vaega, just out of his teens, made his Test debut for a team with no track record of success. When the Big Men finally turned up, they found at least one player of stature already in place.
12 Rino Francescato (Italy): Of all the Francescato brothers, of whom there were plenty, Rino was the true jaw-dropper. Carwyn James, who knew a thing or two, said he was “possibly the best centre in Europe” at a time when Italy rarely beat anyone stronger than Spain or Poland and midfield maestros like Didier Codorniou and Ian McGeechan were strutting their stuff on the major stages.
11 DTH Van der Merwe (Canada):
If the Canucks have been willing but weak in the professional era, Daniel Talliferre Hauman VdM has been a World Cup wonder. He was the standout wing of the 2015 tournament – no mean feat with an All Black as predatory Julian Savea in the mix.
10 Kennedy Tsimba (Zimbabwe):
A World Rugby hall-of-famer who scored 72 points in six internationals, despite the poverty of talent around him. Who knows what he might have achieved had he been a Springbok?
9 Mircea Paraschivescu (Romania):
The Mighty Oaks’ rise to relevance in the 1980s began with the discovery of a deeply resourceful game-shaper at half-back. Paraschivescu was so important, he stayed in the side for a dozen years.
1 Pablo Lemoine (Uruguay): The first professional player in his country’s rugby history – Bristol signed him in the late 1990s – Lemoine had something none of his compatriots could offer and somehow managed to show it while routinely losing matches to bargain-basement opposition.
2 Marius Tincu (Romania): As canine a hooker as could be found anywhere in the world, he would mix it with the best of them while being smithereened all over the scoreboard. If his countrymen fought the good fight badly, Tincu was never happier than when fighting the bad fight…er… goodly.
3 Adrian Garvey (Zimbabwe): Stunning, even when doing the hardest yards clad in Zimbabwean bottle green. The man from Bulawayo would grow into a significant Springbok – perhaps the least surprising transition in the whole of rugby history.
4 Mamuka Gorgodze (Georgia): Feeling brave? Go tell him he was rubbish.
5 Toshiyuki Hayashi (Japan): There was barely a place for Japan on the international scene when Hayashi began his 12-year run of Brave Blossomship in 1980, yet by the time he had finished, he had established himself as a lock worthy of serious attention. Some Oxford University sages have included him in their best ever Dark Blue XV.
6 Tagir Gadzhiev (Russia): The personification of pure spirit and raw courage in a team on a hiding to nothing, the Dagestani’s performances at the 2019 World Cup were among the chief glories of the tournament.
7 Jacques Burger (Namibia): Feeling even braver than you were when Gorgodze was in town? Go tell Jacques he never tried hard enough, and then duck. The ultimate one-man teamster.
8 Sione Mafi Pahulu (Tonga): The moment an immature Tonga side started playing outside of the islands, this man persuaded good judges of his status as the best No.8 in the sport. Yep, better than Walter Spanghero, Tommy Bedford, Andy Ripley and Merv the Swerv. Quite something, then.
“He takes the field knowing the best he can hope for is a complete and utter towelling”