Georgia fighting for more meaningful matches - again

LONDON : Georgia head into the World Cup with the same aim as they have entered the previous five - to use the shop window opportunity to make their case for more regular, meaningful competition for the other 3-3/4 years of the four-year cycle.

Their best hope for a victory comes against Portugal but it is probably their performances against Australia, Fiji and Wales that will be more important in their continual and frustrating fight to be taken more seriously in the sport.

June's announcement of a new World League did not specify which two "extra teams" would be included alongside the traditional big guns but it seems to be widely accepted that Japan and Fiji are the front-runners.

That leaves Georgia where they have been since making their World Cup debut in 2003 - scrabbling for scraps from the top table while playing in a second division with the eventual possibility of promotion.

In a sport with so few competitive countries it seems bizarre that Georgia are given so few opportunities - all the more so in light of their performances over the last year.

A first victory over a tier one nation, Italy, in July was followed by a notable Cardiff win over Wales in November.

Their under-20s also caught the eye with wins over England, Argentina and Italy this year.

"We want to continue this. We’ve beaten world-class teams and World Rugby needs to pay more attention to us and a lot of people need to be thinking that something has to change," captain Merab Sharikadze said after the Cardiff win.

Months later they were not even included in World Rugby's discussions about the new World League.

'STRONG MESSAGE'

"From a Georgian perspective what we need is further, faster development," Georgia Rugby president Soso Tkemaladze told the Daily