The demand from a 'frustrated' Georgia as the Six Nations kicks off
Inspirational Georgia boss Levan Maisashvili doesn’t have a minute to lose these days. It’s not that he didn’t live life to the full before. He very much did. It’s just that every moment now feels so precious ever since he was miraculously restored to rude health following a frightening 2021 battle with covid in South Africa. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be alive and on a Zoom call with RugbyPass but he was, insightfully shooting the breeze ahead of his country’s upcoming Rugby Europe campaign.
Just 18 months ago he was given only a two per cent chance of survival when ventilated in a Johannesburg hospital with serious lung damage. He went on to lose 25kgs in a month-long induced coma before he remarkably defied the odds and started to recover from the illness contracted while touring with Georgia.
With that courageous battle brilliantly won and now past tense, Maisashvili chatted away amenably from Tbilisi from what essentially looked like a classroom rugby laboratory. His desk in the top left corner of the room was all business-like and behind him was a giant whiteboard jammed with jottings ahead of a year where the head coach wants to achieve like never before with Georgia.
Winning the Rugby Europe title in the coming weeks would be no great shake. After all, the Georgians are a dab hand at pocketing that particular title – 14 times they have been champions, the last five arriving consecutively.
Instead, 2023 is all about the Rugby World Cup in France and Georgia performing there with the type of distinction that was beyond them last time out. Maisashvili was then an assistant to head coach Milton Haig but the campaign in Japan never ignited, the Eastern Europeans losing three of their four matches across an unmanageable 19-day schedule.
Georgia beat Wales! ??
It's a historic moment at the Principality as the visitor's claim victory ?#AutumnNationsSeries #WALvGEO pic.twitter.com/f2fVm9nkCE
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) November 19, 2022
Only Uruguay were beaten on that ill-fated excursion but the devilish aspect of what now lies ahead on this year’s September/October calendar is a four-game schedule spread across 28 days that includes clashes with Australia, Fiji and Wales, the three teams that comfortably had their number four years ago in the Far East. As a barometer to accurately measure their progress in the time since then, the fixtures couldn’t have worked out any better.
All the more encouraging ahead of the finals, Georgia beat Wales in Cardiff just 10 weeks ago and a few months before that, they also took the scalp of Italy, another Six Nations country that bounced back to get the better of Australia in their recent Autumn Nations Series.
With two major scalps taken, a burning desire exists to take many more, starting with the Wallabies in Paris on September 9 before the show moves onto Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes for the Georgians who will surely feel their base camp at La Rochelle, home of the current Heineken Champions Cup holders, is another good omen feeding into the general feel-good factor surrounding them.
And yet, Maisashvili is fuming. Whereas the likes of Wales and Italy have every incentive to get better with the calibre of build-up fixtures pencilled in on their dance cards, starting with next weekend’s opening round in the Guinness Six Nations, Georgia are in the lurch despite their recent improvements.
True, they have an August 26 match scheduled versus Scotland at Murrayfield, but that’s the height of it at the minute. Opponents have yet to be secured for two other friendly dates in the lead-up to France 2023, while the revamped Rugby Europe format has rankled.
Before, all six participants played each other once in a league structure that mirrored the Six Nations. And now? The quality of the tournament has been diluted with its increase to eight teams split into two pools of four. Georgia have February matches at home to Germany and away to Netherlands and Spain, but there is no guarantee they will definitely get to meet both Romania and Portugal, their fellow World Cup finalists, in the two knockout rounds. That grates.
“If you are honest, it is nothing good for us because we always said that this year we needed more competitive games than we have,” explained Maisashvili. “If you watch before now, we had the opportunity to play against Romania, Portugal and Spain, also Russia before it was suspended.
“Now, we haven’t a chance to play against all the teams and it is games against more weak teams. We had five games and from five games, two or three were competitive because Portugal started to play well, Romania has a strong side, Spain are also competitive but now who knows?
“We don’t know who we will play against in a semi-final and in the final that I hope we reach. I don’t think it will be good for us because it is a huge gap between the tier one countries and the competition we are playing in. For our game plan, for the intensity of our game, I don’t think it [the revamp] was a good idea.”
It’s not that Maisashvili is demanding that Georgia get into the Six Nations at the expense of one of its current teams. He would instead prefer an expansion of that tournament, something that outgoing Six Nations CEO Ben Morel suggested this past week wasn’t on the cards. “We never wanted anyone’s place in the Six Nations,” Maisashvili insisted.
“We are not talking that we need the place of Italy or Wales. We don’t need that. We need more good games and people have to start thinking about that. I don’t know. Maybe a Seven Nations. Eight Nations. If you remember 2020, it [the Autumn Nations Series] was an excellent tournament and it was very helpful for us.
“We have shown we can play good rugby, that we can play against tier one countries and also that we can beat them. It was first time [Italy], it was second time [Wales] and there will also be a next time but, of course, I’m frustrated. Everyone is talking about that but no one is doing anything. I don’t know the people who are responsible for that. But what is rugby? Is it a small group? Is it a game for 10 countries? What is it? We also need our part of participation, our challenge, our opportunities.
“It is a big self-confidence for the coaching staff, for players, for everyone – to beat the Welsh at the Principality Stadium, not a lot of teams can do that. Also, if you talk about Italy, there are one of the big teams who have a chance to participate in the Six Nations. Their team will go up and up and they also beat Wales at the Principality and also beat Australia.
This try though ??
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— Georgian Rugby (@GeorgianRugby) July 10, 2022
“That is a very good, strong team with an excellent coach in Kieran Crowley who created history. Also, watch Benetton and how they play at URC. That is why for us, for Georgia, Italy was a historical game. That will help us carry on our development and our plans for World Cup. It was a good opportunity for us.
“There is a big trust and a big self-confidence but that is our biggest issue – if you want Georgia rugby to get better we need more games. Every time I’m talking about it it is the same answer from me: we need more games. More games, more competitive games, more strong teams, more tier one countries. It is so difficult, so difficult.
“Okay, everyone said, ‘Well done, Georgia, we are happy for you’. The big dogs have started to more appreciate Georgia but they are more prepared against us. We are not like a surprise for anyone. Everyone will prepare against us more carefully and they appreciate us but from November through to August, when we have a chance to play Scotland in Edinburgh, it [the lack of matches] is not normal.”
Georgia at least had the Black Lion franchise to sustain them somewhat over an eight-game winter. The professional club team, which Maisashvili also coaches, lifted the Super Cup trophy with a December 17 final win over Tel-Aviv Heat in Tbilisi. Eighteen of those locally-based players were named in the 34-strong Georgian squad for the Autumn Nations Series that culminated in the 13-12 ambush of Wales.
There were accompanied by nine Top 14-based players, one Premiership, one URC and five more from the Pro D2, the second-tier French league that Maisashvili suggested doesn’t match up to what the Black Lion now offers. “That franchise team, we created it so we don’t have to send players outside the country.
Those special emotions ??? pic.twitter.com/kDKROTtgnW
— Georgian Rugby (@GeorgianRugby) March 20, 2022
“We always had issues with domestic players getting game time with intensity, so that was why we created a professional franchise team. Now all those players are international-level players, fully professional players. If someone is good enough to play at Premiership or Top 14 level, at the better level of competition, of course it will be good for us but we don’t need our players who are playing with the national team to play at Pro D2 or Federale 1 competition.
“The Black Lion quality is now good and if players go, they have to go to a better competition like URC, like Top 14, like Premiership but not a lower competition. I don’t think Pro D2 has enough teams that are good enough for our international-level players. A couple of teams, yes, who want to go up, but the majority of teams are not professional enough.”
One place that Maisashvili himself tried to go to lately was back to South Africa. The Black Lion were rostered in the 2022 Currie Cup but the coach wasn’t allowed to travel because his illness the previous year meant he had overstayed his visa. “Because of that time I spent in hospital, I overstayed in South Africa,” he said.
“Last summer I tried to enter South Africa because there was a Currie Cup First Division tournament but they didn’t give me permission to enter the country. It was very disappointing for me but I will try and get there someday. I like the country.”
That’s quite the claim given it was so nearly his deathbed after he took ill during the two-Test series Georgia was playing versus the Springboks, a plan ultimately restricted to just one match due to a covid outbreak in respective squads shortly before South Africa took on the British and Irish Lions.
? Unstoppable ?
Those @GeorgianRugby scrums ?#AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/lHXQrWUH72
— Autumn Nations Series (@autumnnations) November 22, 2022
“I’m now fully healthy. My recovery was the best recovery for me. I was blessed with the best way to recover, doing the activities of a job that I like. Now, I am in full health,” beamed Maisashvili, breaking out in a smile before recalling the moment when he awoke from his South African coma.
“My reaction was, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you to the people who have prayed for me and who were fighting for my life, my family, my friends and the medics, the excellent people who I have a relationship with now.
“I’m a religious person, but maybe not enough. I should be much more but anyway, a person has to be blind to not see how I survived. There was only one reason why I survived and it was a decision of God. When things like that happen, it is a good sign from God. If you want to survive, if you want to be happy in your life, you have to live your life with roots.
“It’s like how build your habits, they will be your life. I try and be my best. Every time you remind yourself that if you want to be successful you have to live correctly, you have up live and do the correct things.”
The restoration of Maisashvili as Georgia boss following his health scare wasn’t the only rugby ‘boomerang’ of note in recent times. Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland are now back in charge of their respective old teams, Australia and Wales, but the Georgian isn’t dwelling much on the prospect of his own head-to-head duels against them in France.
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“Yeah, it is interesting. It is a good opportunity for me but it is not about them, it’s about us [the Georgia team]. It’s about what we will do, not about them. But it is a good opportunity to play against excellent coaches. Eddie is a brilliant coach. Also Warren, a good coach, and it’s a good opportunity to play against those coaches but, as I mentioned, it’s more for us, not for them. I don’t want to worry about what they will do against us. I will worry about what we will do against them.”
Rugby has been part of Maisashvili’s life ever since he was a seven-year-old, quitting football after some rugby coaches visited his school and got him hooked on playing. Those roles were later reversed, the grown-up Maisashvili starting his coaching career tutoring small kids and now, all these years later, he is set to become a World Cup head coach.
“You cannot live without rugby. It became like a lifestyle, not only a sport. When I started coaching I started with small kids and now all these players are the biggest inspiration for me because every time they grow, I grow as a coach. They are always a big inspiration. Also, rugby is quite similar to our history, Georgian history.
“All our life was fighting against someone to survive, survive our country, survive our region. That is why it is a big inspiration. As a nation it is like our lifestyle, it’s very typical. That is why I like rugby and every Georgian, when they are coming on the field, they are trying to do their best.
“I have memories from that 2019 World Cup and so do the players who were at that tournament. To get more good results and more success we needed to have more teamwork, the coaches and players. Now we are more ready and bonded. That was the big lesson – if you want to achieve success, you have to be more bonded.”
Maisashvili’s Georgia sure sound like they are.
Comments on RugbyPass
He would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
1 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
1 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
1 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to commentsI think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
8 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
56 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
8 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to comments