The first round of “Tbilisi Cup 2014” showed that “Jaguars” of Argentina are the main candidates of winning trophy. The Georgian team has to work hard to play Argentina equally.
“The Lelos” are host team but the match against Spain caused a lot of questions. The first half was held well but everything was messed up in the second half and perhaps, we must be thankful that we won the match.
“Not only me, but the whole team is dissatisfied with the playing quality and everybody mentioned that before the final whistle. We must not relax a minute in the ranking match. We scored two good tries in the first half but the second one was catastrophe. We know if we do not improve everything, we will not have a chance.
We must rely on these boys not only now but at the 2015 World Cup and there will be no changes in the expanded composition. This tournament is for improving playing quality. I wanted the team to play for try but they scored penalty and we are left without bonus point” – stated Milton Haig, head coach of the Georgian national team.
In the first half the Georgian team was controlling the ball, had advantage but something was missing and Beka Tsiklauri scored penalty at the 16th minute. In the middle of the first half Tamaz Mchedlidze scored try. Tsiklauri missed conversion – 8:0.
As the Georgians were controlling the ball the Spaniards were without chance. At the 29th minute they had a chance to score penalty but Daniel Snee missed it. It was followed by mistake of Tsiklauri and Adam Newton scored try. Snee minimized the score with conversion.
The Georgians used the rest of the time and Shalva Mamukashvili scored try. Tsiklauri used conversion. At the 37th minute Sandro Todua scored try but conversion was missed. The first half ended up 20:7 in favor of the Georgians.
Unfortunately, the Georgian rugby players made a lot of mistakes in the second half and finally, the match finished 23:13.
Santiago Santos (head coach of the Spanish team): “I am satisfied with score and playing. We are building a new team and we held the first match quite well. We could not score tries because of our mistakes. Besides that, I am proud of my team”.
Jaime Nava (captain of the Spanish team): “We did not deserve playing at this tournament. IRB and the Georgian Rugby Union invited us and we must show good result to deserve such honor in the future again. We all know that the Georgian first team did not play against us today but anyway, we played against giant. So, I am proud of this young team which showed itself well”.
Zura Ksovreli
