Bears hungry for scalp of rivals Georgia

LYN Jones is used to big derby matches and they don’t come much bigger than today’s in Tbilisi.

The former Ospreys and Dragons coach, now in charge of Russia, is aiming to put one over on biggest rivals, Georgia, in the final round of the held-over 2020 Rugby Europe Championship.

Georgia, seeking a third successive Grand Slam, have hogged top spot in the second tier of European Test rugby with wins over Romania (41-13), Spain (2310), Belgium (78-6) and Portugal (39-24) last February and March.

Russia got off to a terrible start with back-to-back defeats to Spain (31-12) and Belgium (38-12) before recovering to beat Portugal (19-18) and Romania (32-25).

The Georgians stepped up to play in the Autumn Nations Cup earlier in the season but will be missing a number of key players for the battle with a Russian Bears side that has been bolstered in the coaching department by the addition of ex-Leicester prop Boris Stankovich and former Scotland flanker Carl Hogg.

“We wanted to keep the same core team from the ANC but unfortunately this has not worked out,” said Georgia coach Levan Maisashvili. “We’re missing ten players because of injuries and travel issues due to the pandemic.”

Jones will be hoping to move his side out of the basement zone in the table and get one over on a nation that has stolen their status as the top team in the region. It will be a big game in every sense,with World Cup 2023 qualification beginning in March.

“All the guys are trying very hard and are really looking forward to playing against Georgia,” said Jones. “This is ‘The Lelos’ we are coming up against – it's the local derby – and the Russian national team has not played a Test match in a very long time.”

Spain host Portugal in Madrid in the other game being played today. Belgium forfeited their match against Romania due to Covid travel restrictions and now face a playoff against Netherlands for a spot in the 2021 tournament.