Lelos power on their way to RWC 2023

THESE may be tricky transitional times for Georgia but, with a testing autumn of playing T1 nations to draw on, they continue to dominate the Rugby Europe competition despite not calling on all of their more experienced players based in France.

The Lelos have reeled off four straight wins over Portugal, Spain, Russia and Romania and with the first three of those matches on the road they are well on their way to the automatic spot at RWC2023 in France.

The nation that finishes top of a combined table incorporating the 2021 and 2022 REC Championships – meaning everybody gets to play each other home and away – will automatically qualify for RWC2023. The second placed team is also assured of a slot in France while the nation in third will advance to the repechage.

The Lelos’ campaign hasn’t been without its moments, not least in the first game in Lisbon at the start of March, where they found themselves trailing 16-10 against an enterprising Portugal side ten minutes into the second half. Soon after they also copped a yellow card but that seemed to spark Georgia up as their forwards turned on the power and heralded a 29-16 win.

Onwards to Madrid where Spain were going well and trailing by just two points with 15 minutes left when hooker Jaba Bregvadze struck for the decisive try in Georgia’s 25-19 win.

A third consecutive away trip saw an impressive 23-6 win over Russia in Kaliningrad when a 10,000 crowd was allowed into the splendid Kaliningrad Stadium where England lost 1-0 to Belgium in the last FIFA World Cup. Russia have big plans for Kaliningrad, an historic Baltic city, if they can ever win the rights to stage RWC.

Finally last week Georgia completed an excellent winter’s work back in Tbilisi with a 28-17 victory of Romania at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium where an 8,000 crowd was allowed to attend.

Romania, with Andy Robinson at the helm, have enjoyed a useful start – two wins and two defeats – with a narrow victory in Portugal and an invaluable 22-16 win over Spain in wintry conditions in Bucharest. The Spanish looked on course for a rare victory in Romania when they self-destructed with No.8 Federic Quercy being sent off for a crude knee into an opponent’s face at a collapsed maul.

The Spaniards have had a disappointing campaign thus far with the nadir coming last week in sunny Lisbon where they led 21-7 at one stage but had wing Fabien Perrin sent off and lost 43-28.

Spain’s discipline has generally been lamentable and they badly need to clean their act up byJuly 4 when they are scheduled to play Russian in Madrid, a must win game. Two weeks later they play the winners of the delayed Belgium v Netherlands promotion-relegation play-off left over from last season’s covid-hit competition.

Triumph in both those and Spain could be back in the fight for the runners-up spot… but nobody will catch Georgia now.