On November 17, 24 Georgian national rugby team has two very important matches. On November 17, at 15:00 o’clock at “Mikheil Meskhi”, “The Lelos” plays against Japanese national team, on November 24 at 15 o’clock against Fiji national team.
Selling tickets at both these matches has already started at boxing office of “Mikheil Meskhi” and “Dinamo Arena” and the price is from 5 GEL to 10. It worth mentioning that such opponent have never visited Georgia and our guys needs a strong support. Before arriving in Tbilisi, Japanese national team beat Romania in Bucharest 34:23 and as for Fiji in spite of superiority it lost 12:54. Fiji holds one more match in England against “Glosters”.
Georgian national team, for preparing for the upcoming match, had three-day meeting in France and continued trainings in Georgia. Due to traumas Vasil Kakovini, Jaba Bregvadze, Giorgi Chkhaidze and Dimitri Basilaia will not help the team. From the preliminary 32-man line-up Anton Peikrishvili and Lasha Malaguridze were replaced with Levan Chilchava and Kote Mikautadze, on Tuesday leader of the tea, Mamuka Gorgodze the player of Georgia in 2012 did not participate in training. He felt sick and the coaches let him rest a little.
On Tuesday before the training Giorgi Nizharadze President of Georgian Rugby Union, Milton Haig manager of “The Lelos” and Tana Umaga his assistant in these two matches held the press-conference and talked how important are these matches.
Milton Haig (manager of Georgian national team): “before the meeting in Georgia, we left for France and we had a meeting there, it helped us very much in organizing. We achieved there such level what we would not have here. Unfortunately, 4-5 players will not be able to help us due to traumas, but in any case we had a good line-up and our goal is winning these two matches. All rugby players realize it well and we will play only for victory in each match.
Taking the relevant place in ranking is a very important for Georgian rugby and we’d like to show International Council that we can hold such level matches. Future opponents are play with different style. Now, we think only about Japan, we learnt it very well and now we have all kind of information about its style. A little time ago, they changed their playing style for several times. We also should take on our account who is our manager and as a result we should guess what kind of style opponent will offer us.
To my mind, while working here, diapason of playing style grew in Georgian team and it does not play only with attack line. Our attacks became various and showing it in concrete matches depends on our preparation. I believe that Georgian team can play against top echelon rugby teams very well. I mean Scotland and Italy.
The main is the team to enter the team mobilized and on a good mood and then it will defend all kind of opponent. I watched the match between Romania and Japan, Romania lost the match in final 20 minutes. Maybe it is fitness problem. I was observing Japan at The Pacific Ocean Cup in June and now it plays with different style.
They worked on this style and supposedly they will play in such style, in case of need they can changes style during the match. We take all the components on our account and to my mind we can beat the opponent”.
Tana Umaga (coach of the back-line of Georgia):” I have been working with guys for two days but they have already managed to impress me. I try to share them my experience and to improve their experience. The main thing is that they follow me very well and get my point very quickly. I arrived in Georgia by invitation of Milton Haig. I am very pleased with the time I have spent here, everyone treats me very well and when Milton needs my held I will always be next to him. As for me, as the person who is in love with rugby and as a rugby coach being here is a great pleasure. But we have to observe now what kind of result shall we have in these two matches and then we will talk about staying in Georgia”.
Giorgi Nizharadze (President of Georgian Rugby Union):” such high level teams have never visited Georgia. To tell the truth they are stronger and more experience than Georgian team. Japan is one of the best teams in the world. Look through the surnames of the players, who play there and everything will be defined. Andy Johnson trains their team, he is one of the best specialists in the world. There is nothing to explain about Fiji national team too, everything is clear.
In spite of this, Georgian national team will play only for victory and strong support will help us in achieving our goal very much. If everything is ok, better teams will come in the future, or we will visit them. In spite of injured players, we have a strong line-up and “The Lelos”, as usual will show honorable playing.
As for Tana Umaga, we will talk about future negotiations in the next matches. He has a contract with the club, but we will do our best he to be in the managing board of Georgian team for World Cup 2015”.
Zura Ksovreli
