Two World Cup supermen will hurtle into seismic collision as Namibia and Georgia take their last game of the tournament today – both battered, but unbowed and fiercely proud.
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“To come back like we did towards the end and almost snatch a victory was incredible”.
Georgia play Namibia on Thursday morning and another win will only support further their claim that they deserve better treatment at least in Europe instead of perennially being asked to play in the second tier. Georgia snuck past Tonga and all of the more fancied teams – including New Zealand – have been tickled up by teams given no chance before the Rugby World Cup started.
The 18-year-old Vasil Lobzhanidze, the World Cup’s youngest ever player, returns to the starting XV at scrumhalf in an otherwise very experienced Georgia team boasting 693 test caps – the national record. That left Milton Haig venting in the coach’s box and gave yet more confidence to Phil Davies’ side that a first ever RWC victory was on. We said before the game we wanted the players to play with emotion and a real performance from the heart.
Namibia lost inspirational skipper Jacques Burger to concussion in the 10th minute and somehow led 6-0 at half-time – despite missing 33 tackles – thanks to two Theuns Kotze penalties.
Georgia were intent on changing that early in the second-half and with Merab Kvirikashvili and Todua combining well, it looked like happening sooner rather than later.
Referee George Clancy adjudged Malaguradze to have knocked on when he stripped the ball from Darryl de la Harpe.
Georgia hooker Jaba Bregvadze was sin-binned for leading with his elbow as he went in for a challenge.
Man of the match: Namibia impressed in the first period with a workmanlike effort but in the second-half the quality of Georgia helped them turn the screw, with inside centre Merab Sharikadze standing out.
Gorgodze finished a long siege by busting through in the 50th.
Lasha Malaghuradze scores Georgia’s 2nd try in the Pool C agree against Namibia.
They needed it as Kotze kicked his third penalty and then capped off a fine move as he scored in the left corner. Kotze converted it, too, to set up a frantic last five minutes.
They are still yet to register a World Cup win, but their one-point loss to Georgia and 14-point loss to Tonga at this tournament are their two smallest losing margins at a World Cup, and getting within 44 points of the All Blacks would have been an nearly unthinkable result as recently as 2011, when they were thumped 87-0 by South Africa.
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“We’re going to celebrate”, prop Mikheil Nariashvili said, “because for a small country like Georgia we have written our page in history”.
