FOR MOST IRISH rugby fans, the thought of the game against Georgia at the 2007 Rugby World Cup is enough to make you break out in a cold sweat. But while that game signalled that all was not right with Ireland’s World Cup preparation, it had the opposite impact on the game in Georgia.
Although they didn’t get a famous victory, the players were still treated as heroes and the IRB thinks their performance in that tournament kickstarted rugby in Georgia.
“They’re on the right track to becoming a very competitive high performance tier two country,” said the IRB’s head of competition and performance, Mark Egan, speaking to the Down the Blindside podcast.
We’ve seen great progress since that 2007 Rugby World Cup. That game against Ireland was a bit of a watershed for them. The president of the country was at the game and post-match he went into the changing rooms and said he was ‘very proud of what they’d achieved on the day’ even though they didn’t get the victory. And that he was committed to investing in rugby in Georgia because he saw the rugby team as great ambassadors for the country and he saw the potential.
Since the tournament, a significant amount of money has been invested into Georgian rugby by both the IRB and the government.
“There was a strong commitment from the government to invest in high performance facilities,” Egan said.
The former prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili committed to building eight high performance centres around the country. Six of them are now on-stream, a total investment of around £15 million will have gone in by the time the other ones are completed. We saw them as a good investment and we invest about £500,000 a year. We’ve got a good coaching staff there with Milton Haig from New Zealand and Michael Bradley is doing an excellent job.
Ireland’s laboured effort against the Georgia in ’07 hasn’t been forgotten by Joe Schmidt’s men either, with Rob Kearney saying that the debacle has been brought up to guard against complacency.
“Yeah, it was mentioned, more than once,” Kearney said.
“I’d like to think we’re a very different team to the team that took the field in Bordeaux. It’s a very good lesson that if you disrespect opposition and get a bit ahead of your station and think you’re better than you are. And maybe, think the opposition aren’t as good as they are, these surprises always happen.”
Egan mentioned the gulf in class between the Georgian pack and their relatively novice back division and thinks getting more Georgian players into the top leagues would help close that gap. He also thinks the more Georgian teams that participate in European competition, the better it will be for the game there.
“The missing link for them and other tier two nations is the regular elite club competition for their players,” Egan said.
The Pacific Islands are so successful because they produce fantastic athletes and get most of their players into professional leagues in France, England and Super Rugby. That’s what needs to happen for Georgia and Romania in the short to medium term. Getting them into regular cross-regional club competition – there’s a solution within the European structures, a third tier club competition which I think would help Georgia immensely. That’s where the answer lies in the long term and if they achieve that they have the opportunity to compete with the very best.
