Good morning, rugby fans.
The bad news is that we can’t just skip right ahead to the quarter-final stage of the Rugby World Cup after Ireland demolished Scotland yesterday, there’s a wee bit to go before then.
The good news is that there is midweek rugby action afoot and the Grand Slam winners must navigate the tricky obstacle of Georgia, the regular noisy neighbours of the Six Nations sides.
Wales’ true pool-decider will of course come a little later against the Wallabies, but a fierce pack like Georgia – complete with the out-of-retirement Mamuka Gorgodze – could cause some real issues if Warren Gatland’s side are even a little disrupted by the loss of backs coach Rob Howley over a betting breach.
Here are the teams for today’s clash, Dan Biggar takes the reins at out-half with a powerful-looking back-line featuring Hadleigh Parkes, Jon Davies, George North and the wonderful Liam Williams.
Wales:
Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Tom Francis, Jake Ball, Alun Wyn Jones (capt.), Aaron Wainwright, Justin Tipuric, Josh Navidi.
Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar, Josh Adams, Hadleigh Parkes, Jonathan Davies, George North, Liam Williams.
Replacements: Elliot Dee, Nicky Smith, Dillon Lewis, Aaron Shingler, Ross Moriarty, Tomos Williams, Rhys Patchell, Leigh Halfpenny.
Georgia
Mikheil Nariashvili (capt.), Shalva Mamukashvili, Beka Gigashvili, Giorgi Nemsadze, Konstantine Mikautadze, Giorgi Tkhilaishvili, Mamuka Gorgodze, Beka Gorgadze.
Vasil Lobzhanidze, Tedo Abzhandadze, Giorgi Kveseladze, Tamaz Mchedlidze, David Kacharava, Miriani Modebadze, Soso Matiashvili.
Replacements:
Jaba Bregvadze, Guram Gogichashvili, Levan Chilachava, Shalva Sutiashvili, Beka Saginadze, Otari Giorgadze, Gela Aprasidze, Lasha Khmaladze
The bookmakers don’t give the Tier 2 much hope here, with a spread sitting at 27 points.
They’re playing under a roof in Toyota City too, so Wales will feel right at home and if they can get their tempo set nice and high they could do a job in moving around those big Georgian units.
Nice shot of Stephen Jones seated next to big Warren G there after the anthems. How will the attack he now presides over fare?
Kick-off is here.
The grand old man Mamuka Gorgodze knock-on from the kick-off into the Georgia 22 and Wales have an ideal starting position.
Wales try to move it very quick, Jon Davies raids the short side and the ball is stripped from him as he takes contact.
TRY! Wales 5 Georgia (Davies ’3)
Well that’s a shocking way to start for Georgia. Wales go hard at the line off the second scrum and Gareth Davies spins a nice flat pass to Jon Davies and he goes under the posts untouched.
Dan Biggar’s conversion attempt is woeful as the Georgian first phase defence and it pings off the bar.
Controversy ahoy.
Luke Pearce has had a good long look at an aerial contest between Josh Adams and Kveseladze.
The Georgian wing took a bad fall after the contest, but the referee deemed the contact legal – and did so again after the TMO asked if he was happy with the pull on the arm Adams did on his opposite number.
Lucky welsh boy, you’d have to say.
PENALTY! Wales 8 Georgia 0 (Biggar ’7)
A double kick in the teeth for Georgia then as the lead is extended on Wales’ next attack.
TRY! Wales 13 Georgia 0 (Tipuric ’13)
Another very incisive set move from Wales, Gareth Davies is slipped through the gap and he raids for the 22. Jon Davies is in support and though they don’t score without being tackled this time, Justin Tipuric is quick on the scene to finish the move off under the posts.
I’ve learned my lesson of not counting a Dan Biggar conversion until it’s over the bar, and the 10 manages to keep his concentration and slot a second kick from three attempts.
Wales 15 Georgia 0
Are you hearing those screams or is it just me?
There are Ned Flanders-esque exclaims of excitement coming from the stands when Wales go on the attack.
We were braced for another one a moment ago when Liam Williams collected deep in his own half and mounted a counter in the mold of Lions 2017.
Mikautadze came to our eardrums’ rescue with a solid hit.
That simple reverse pass off 10 is just killing Georgia. Biggar slips Josh Adams through the gap and there’s not a glove put on him as he slips towards the left touchline to score.
Biggar converts from wide out, he’s fine on those. It’s the straightforward close range ones he has trouble with.
Wales 22 Georgia 0
Georgia finally begin to find their feet. Lobzhanidze takes the ball on after a midfield break.
Tkhilaishvili looks for a pass back inside, but it’s cut out by Gareth Davies and the TMO is looking at whether it’s worth a card.
After a TMO check, Luke Pearce decides that Davies’ intervention wasn’t worth a yellow and wasn’t even a knock on.
Scrum Georgia.
Georgia’s scrum is in fine fettle at least, though they get a call to use it and mount an attack on the right wing, with Tkhilaishvili cutting back in.
There’s another attack stopped dead in its tracks by a Welsh knock on. This one looks a lot more accidental.
The resulting scrum yields a penalty Graham Rowntree’s pack.
22 down, so kicking at goal wasn’t going to get Georgia far. They scrum again and mount a set of pick and drive phases across the park.
It’s meat and drink fro this Welsh defence though and the pressure is eased by a knock on from Kveseladze while taking a big hit from Navidi.
The very odd sight there of Jonathan Davies storming in from behind the Georgia scrum-half to steal a ball.
Luke Pearce may be being lenient with Wales, but not that lenient.
Though the Welsh D was pretty adamant the ball was out under Lobzhanidze’s legs.
TRY! Wales 27 Georgia 0 (Williams ’39)
There’s the killer blow and the bonus-point win for Wales.
Jon Davies is put through another gap and Georgia have no answer for them when they do get through, the centre looks like he may have gone himself for the line, but he flings a pass left and Liam Williams picks it up on the bounce.
Biggar’s goal-kicking has been spot on since his early brainfart too.
HALF-TIME: Wales 29 Georgia 0
Here comes the second half then, will Wales ease off the pedal and can Georgia mount some sort of challenge in this second period?
It’s already better for Georgia, they get that formidable eight-man unit rumbling in the maul and milk a penalty from Wales.
And back they go to the corner for another round.
The hooker Mamukashvili had the ball at the pack of a promising maul effort there and it looks like he’s got the ball over and down.
There is a disconcerting level of celebration about Toyota Stadium as Georgia finally get on the board.
Abzhandadze adds the conversion and the spread is suddenly in jeopardy again.
Wales 29 Georgia 7
Wales think they have a try, and it’s a shame it’s chalked off for knock-on, because it was a gorgeous one.
Attacking from the corner on the 5, Wales went wide to Biggar and the 10 chipped at the posts. It looked out of reach for Liam Williams, but Liam Williams being Liam Williams he accelerated and propelled his body into a dive to take the ball in and dot down.
But that’s all worthless information really, the TMO goes back to have a gander at the Georgian maul D and decides on a yellow card.
SIN-BIN: Jaba Bregvadze
Nothing inventive from the next Wales attack, they inch forward with pick and drives, only getting shoved back by a tremendous man and ball hit by David Kacharava.
On they rumble, though, until Biggar’s big wind-up pass is cut out and intercepted by Modebadze.
Good hands to take the ball in from point-blank range.
Back come Wales after a reprieve for the 14 men. They’re deep in Georgia’s 22 and hammering away at the collisions again until a sharp blow of the whistle stops the game for an injury to Ken Owens.
Here’s hoping the hooker isn’t as badly off as this looks.
Scratch that, Owens appeared to be writhing in agony, but he has hopped up to pack down in the next scrum.
There’s a turn up for the books, Georgia don’t concede during the sin-bin period. Bregvadze is back in business.
TRY! Wales 34 Georgia 7 (T Williams ’64)
The match was threatening to fizzle out in this half until a surge from Georgia seemed to wake the Dragon.
On Turnover ball, Tipuric attacked the right channel in his own half and took a heavy tackle while offloading to North.
The wing kicked long ahead at the posts and the supporting scrum-half Tomos Williams won the race to the loose ball under the posts.
Wales 36 Georgia 7
There’s a sharp upturn in tempo from Georgia and they get the reward after a series of pick and goes as Levan Chilachava gets over the line.
TRY! Wales 36 Georgia 14 (Chilachava ’70)
The Japanese crowd really seem to love an underdog (and Ireland and the All Blacks) there are delirious roars of excitement whenever Georgia generate any forward momentum and force red jerseys backwards.
Fortunately, Wales aren’t the type of accomodating lads who would think twice about pooping a party.
That was an exciting passage of play. Big shot goes in from Jon Davies to force a turnover. Wales kick long and put Georgia under pressure on the try-line, but they clear their lines well.
Unfortunately for them, Tomos Williams is in inspired form as he runs the ball back; stepping, weaving and ducking through tackles before offloading back for North, who gets through the remaining tacklers a different way as he forces his way to the line.
Wales 43 Georgia 14
When you can pretty much predict the 1/4 final pairings after one round of games it doesn’t really say much about the competition.
@Shimmy Shammy: think you’d have a pretty good go at doing the same at soccer World Cup to be fair! Look at England’s draw at soccer World Cup …utterly predictable
@BMJF: Not really true though. Far more competition in soccer. The group stages in the rugby world cup don’t particularly serve any purpose.
@Shimmy Shammy: The whole purpose of the group stages is the opportunity for these sides to play Tier 1 nations – the problem it isn’t happening enough between world cups, the answer is definitely not reduce the number of teams in the World Cup. There will be a upset or two before we are done, hopefully at Englands expense
Life is just simply better when the world cup is on !
@JillyBean: it desperately need a shock result. Naming the quarter finalists and quite possibly the semi finalists by this weekend isn’t great…..
Am I not right in saying that only 8/9 teams have won the Football World Cup and therefore it’s equally as predictable given its lengthy history?
Crazy to believe people still belittle the quality of the the teams in the RWC.
Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in a semi final not too long ago, so does that equate to to a 49-7 win in rugby?
@Geoff Speiran: You are clutching at straws there Geoff. Only 4 countries have won the Rugby World Cup and correct me if Im wrong, but only 9 teams have ever made the actual quarter finals. Thats a sensational statistic. In soccer you have had the likes of Senegal, Turkey, Ghana, Ireland, South Korea, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden etc. making the latter stages, would never happen in rugby
@Frank Scanlon: You have a point but it’s worth acknowledging that there has been 21 Soccer world cups. This is the 9th Rugby one. Hopefully, teams like Fiji, Japan, USA will start making these breakthroughs with greater regularity. Japan could beat Scotland which would be great for the development of the game.
@Frank Scanlon: But the game is only growing and from a much smaller playing pool, you don’t critique Cricket/Rugby League/Basketball in the same way, why is the football world cup the pinnacle of international sports? When you consider there’s 50 years between the beginning of the football World Cup and RWC it’s hard to draw direct comparisons and who knows whether the 2067 RWC will be exponential more competitive.
@Frank Scanlon: yes but soccer is the no.1 sport in pretty much all these countries. It’s also a bit easier to scrape out of a group stage in soccer, ala Ireland, by parking the bus for a draw or sneaking an odd goal from a setpiece. It’s nigh on impossible for the smaller, less well coached teams to fluke a draw in rugby, you have the width of the pitch to defend, not a smallish rectangle with a net.
@Cian Nolan: Thats neither here nor there as in the first 8 FIFA World Cups 25 different nations had finished in the top 8 of the tournament. I’m sorry but some people are just delusional about the international appeal of rugby. For example I was in Argentina during the last World Cup when they were in the semi final and you would hardly know the game was on, people didnt care, and they are one of the top 8 or 9 nations. Rugby is irrelevant in Italy and even in Australia its way behind Rugby League and AFL
@Geoff Speiran: I absolutely would critique those sports in the same way, Rugby League World Cup in particular is a joke. RWC will not be more competitive in 2067, maybe less so, as any developing nations will more than likely put more resources into sevens as its the Olympic format
@Cian Nolan: the thing is it’s rigged against African teams in football but rigged against Tier 2 teams in rugby .. Japans win against SA in 2015 , Fiji v Wales in 2007 and Samoa VS Wales in 91 are the only true surprise results . If it wasn’t for bonus points the Argentinians could wave goodbye already .
@Tim Magner: Fair point in one sense but the gulf between the top 8/9 in rugby and the next tier is absolutely huge, in general you still have to be somewhere close to the same level in any sport to get a result. Soccer’s lower scoring nature obviously lends to more surprise results, rugby is similar to hurling in the sense that skill differences are amplified on the scoreboard and again its 8/9 teans competing. But to me looking in it seems that rugby is making zero effort to get any other nations to the top table, and on top of that refereeing decisions always seem to favour the top sides just to make sure the natural order is not disrupted
@Frank Scanlon: what exactly does FIFA do for the smaller nations in soccer? All the poorer tier 2 nations in rugby get coaches payed for by the wru. Rugby is a far more physical & attritional sport than soccer, and a lot more technical with things like scrums, lineouts, rucks etc. Of course there’s only 8/9 teams really compete at top end, and they’re the ones with the player base, the squads that can cope with injuries. A soccer team can go a long way in any tournament with 10 solid journeymen & a star who can get the goals, see Portugal. Rugby a bit different
@Frank Scanlon: But given that 15 a side game is more lucrative surely the growth of 7’s will just allow more players a pathway into the 15’s game for other nations and therefore diversity the sport.
I agree there are massive challenges but how many World Cup sports do you tune in to? Granted Rugby is behind others but I implore you to find me a more competitive example in the men’s category.
@Frank Scanlon: 4 teams in 8 world cups as opposed to 9 teams in 21 football world cups…it’s actually 12 teams that have made quarters, Canada once, Western Samoa and Fiji have both made it twice each. Japan are on the cusp and the USA should feature in the future too. And I’d agree with another comment, you can be a terrible team in football and park the bus, but that’s almost impossible to do in rugby where the fatigue is far greater. I love both world cups, I just don’t get this bashing, there are terrible teams like Costa Rica and Iran in the football World Cup, it’s very predictable how their matches will go too!
@Padraig O’M: Iran were actually quite good in the last world cup and should have bet Portugal to go through. Poor example.
@Padraig O’M: Yeah poor example regards Iran and Costa Rica did quite well in previous World Cup. My mistake I didnt realise Canada, Samoa and Fiji had made the quarters but in a sense it only proves that rugby has actually regressed in terms of the number of teams capable of being competitive. Its hard to argue that the current tournament is not extremely predictable. Barring an unlikely upset win for Argentina or France over England, the only thing we are really left wondering is whether Australia or Wales will top their pool.
Sensational….yawn. Extremely predictable. Massively understrength competition and one sided matches that will still be pontificated on by the rugby media.
@Tom Bout: yawn is right! a few days in and the 9 potential quarter finalists have been filtered down to 8 and almost a month of meaningless matches to come.
Nothing so wrong with only having 9 competitive teams. In a high scoring sport it would be hard to get more than that but lobbing 20 of them in to a round robin competition is crazy. Imagine if hurling threw 20 teams in to the All Ireland series. No body would pay to see Kilkenny vs Meath in hurling, it would be a massacre. Serious marketing by World Rugby to sell this tournament and these kind of one-sided games!
@Kevin McMahon: so teams should never play against superior opposition? Seems like a great way to stifle the growth of smaller nations teams
It was mixed feelings seeing the Georgia coach celebrate their 2nd try in a near 30 point defeat so enthusiastically today. Entirely understandable considering the structural and experience disadvantages they have compared to tier 1 teams but really disappointing for the competition when the mid-level teams show no real belief in their ability to compete and are effectively happy if they manage to avoid humiliation.
Rugby won’t continue to grow with the same 10 teams playing each other endlessly, it needs new teams to emerge and they need the same player access and competitive fixtures as the tier 1 nations.
I really hope Japan or Fiji can cause an upset and make things interesting!
@Rochelle: the real thing that’s holding Georgia back is the lack of relegation and promotion in the six nations. They consistently dominate the second tier and rarely get the opportunity to play the tier 1 teams.
@Rochelle: Georgia and Fiji can play at tier 1 level if given the opportunity for test rugby on a regular basis. What about a 7 Nations? or adding Fiji to make southern hemi a 5mations?
@Dave O Keeffe: why can’t we have a 7 Nations? Who said it has to be six?? It used to be 5. Relegation would only destroy the team dropping down..left with no one to compete against & it they’d destroy EUROPEAN tier 2 or 3 teams which is pointless
@BMJF: well if Italy for example got relegated they’d have a year to regroup and rebuild, get a few wins and possibly come back up. Georgia would get a year playing against tier 1 teams and at the very least see the level they aspire to. Tier 2 teams would also benefit massively from playing against a relegated tier 1 team, testing themselves against that level, seeing the difference in quality or lack thereof. It let’s everyone see where they’re at. Right now the 5th ranked tier 2 European team are ahead against Samoa in the second half.
@BMJF: my issue with making it a 7 nations means that it’s always the same protected 7. There’s no growth for the 8th ranked team.
Sensational amount of RWC articles!!!
Rugby is over rated
What a predictable boring article , yawn yawn
@Frank Tennant: whereas your comment, Frank – what an absolute fücking zinger. Wow. What I’d give to be able to write like that.
I’m not sure when they hand out Pulitzers but you should keep that night free I’d say.
Glad to see you are enjoying Japan Sean