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'I would say Ireland is one of the top teams in the world, and you cannot really say if they are first or fifth'

By PA
Dublin , Ireland - 24 October 2020; Garry Ringrose of Ireland goes down with an injury before leaving the pitch during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Georgia captain Merab Sharikadze insists Ireland remain one of the world’s best teams. The Irish have suffered a succession of defeats against elite opposition, losing twice to England and once to France since last year’s World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of New Zealand.

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Sharikadze will lead his country out in Dublin on Sunday afternoon bidding to spring an upset against Andy Farrell’s side in the Autumn Nations Cup.

The 27-year-old believes Ireland – ranked fifth in the world – should be considered among rugby’s leading nations, citing contrasting recent results between New Zealand and Argentina to illustrate his point.

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“I would say that difference is very close,” Sharikadze said of the gap between Ireland and higher-ranked sides.

“If you take today’s example, we’ve seen Argentina beat New Zealand two weeks ago and today (Saturday) they lost, so you can’t really tell who is a better team. It’s decided in the game day.

“One day Ireland will win and the following week the opposition will win.

“I would say Ireland is one of the top teams in the world, and you cannot really say if they are first or fifth. It depends on the game day.”

Georgia have lost each of their previous four meetings with Ireland and are yet to score a point in the Autumn Nations Cup.

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The Lelos went down 18-0 to Wales last weekend, following a 40-0 drubbing against England.

Head coach Levan Maisashvili has made six changes to the team beaten in Llanelli, with Soso Matiashvili and Tamaz Mchedlidze returning to the backline and Shalva Mamukashvili, Nodar Cheishvili, Lasha Jaiani and Tornike Jalagonia coming into the forward pack.

Centre Sharikadze, who has spent his entire club career in France, has called for the team to be more efficient with their chances.

“We need to use our opportunities better. Every time we have an opportunity to score, we need to score,” he said.

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“At the moment we haven’t been very careful with that, so we wasted quite big opportunities.

“Hopefully for tomorrow’s game we can be better than that.”

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Rebeccakirby 7 minutes ago
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Mzilikazi 8 hours ago
'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

“I was wondering if the AIL had clubs that were on the tipping point of wanting to become pro, how close could they get to a current Ulster etc”.


The Irish structure has always been the International team at the top, then the four provinces, then the clubs below that. Before the pro era in each province there were senior clubs playing each other, and that was pretty much “ring fenced”…no relegation or promotion. Then below that a series of junior leagues. The top players in the international scene played in the Five Nations(before Italy came in), and against the touring All Blacks or Springboks initially, then later Australia and Argentina came in. Actually I would need to go back and check the history of the teams coming onto the scene ie other than the Ab’s and Boks.


Those International players would only play for their province three times each year in the Inter Pro games, with the Bok, AB etc games only in tour years. Rest of the time, every single Int. player played club rugby every weekend.


Pro era dawned, and the four provinces became the sole pro teams, feeding up to the Int. team. There is no prospect as far as I can see of any AIL team ever becoming professional. Deepete, or someone living in Ireland would know more than I do, but what happens is fringe and academy players can play in the AIL, giving them game time they would not get otherwise. Top International players would rarely play at AIL level.


I think in Australia the tyranny of distance inhibits an AIL type structure. Ireland is tiny, good rail and road sytems, and it is easy to play in Cork, Limerick, Dublin, any where, weekend after weekend. Imagine an All Australian league, and travelling from Townsville for a game in Margaret River, etc. etc.


“I actually had the tables up and had no idea who was who lol”. Neither do I in some cases. A lot of new clubs since I played/lived in Ireland…I have to check who some are !!


Good discussion here JW. Have enjoyed it.

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Rebeccakirby 9 hours ago
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