Richard Cockerill on Akaki Tabutsadze: 'He reminds me of Jonny May'
Normal is a word that no one would use to describe Jonny May, the English eccentric who scored tries for fun before announcing his retirement after the recent Rugby World Cup.
However, according to Georgia head coach Richard Cockerill, May’s free spirit lives on in the shape of free-scoring Lelos winger Akaki Tabutsadze.
In the best traditions of scrum-cap wearing wingers, Tabutsadze doesn’t mind standing out from the crowd and Cockerill sees similarities between the players.
“Aka is a finisher, he reminds me of Jonny May, you have no idea what he is going to do but he managed to find a way to the try line.
“They are typical wingers; they have got instincts that they are born with around scoring tries and sometimes they do the daftest things so in that way they are both very similar.”
Tabutsadze needs one try to draw level with May on 36 tries; the England winger having got there in 78 caps. Tabutsadze has got 35 in only 39 test appearances.
The 26-year-old Black Lion player is a try-scoring machine, one of the best around, and RugbyPass TV users will get the chance to see him in action this Sunday when Georgia take on Portugal in the final of the 2024 Rugby Europe Championship.
Tabutsadze scored three tries in the semi-final win over Romania a fortnight ago, two in the 38-11 win against Portugal in last year’s final and one in the 18-18 draw between the teams at Rugby World Cup 2023.
Now that Tabutsadze, the leading try scorer in the REC with five overall, has been re-joined on the wings by fit-again Lyon star, Davit Niniashvili, Georgia have twin threats out wide.
“We’ve got two great finishers really with Nini on one wing and Aka on the other wing, they are both very good,” admitted Cockerill, who broke off from team preparations to speak with RugbyPass whilst in camp in Paris.
“Nini is a quality player, unbelievably skilful
“I have seen some very good wingers in my time. For a guy who is 21/22 years of age, I can’t think of many European teams that he wouldn’t get a game in. He is a special talent.
“If we can get the ball in his hands as often as possible along with all our other qualities, then we should be able to create some opportunities.”
While last year’s final was a one-sided affair, Portugal will go into this game believing they can win their first title at this level since 2003, when the competition had the less marketable name, European Nations Cup Division 1A.
Playing the game on the synthetic surface at the Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris should suit Os Lobos more than Georgia who, despite their stellar wing talents, will probably bank on winning the game using a direct and physical approach.
The six-time defending champions are unbeaten in 32 Rugby Europe Championship matches, and Cockerill knows they are there to be shot at.
“There is pressure on us to win; everybody expects us to win so we have to make sure we get everything right.
“The last three times we have played Portugal we have won one and drawn two. They were the darlings of the World Cup having beaten Fiji and they should have probably beaten us, so we’ve got a fair bit to prove to ourselves.
“We’ll be well prepared and we are certainly well motivated as a group.
“We have shown some really good parts of our play and I’m hoping we can bring all that together on Sunday and put in a complete performance.
“We know that we don’t play as well as we can they are a good enough team to beat us. They are very dangerous with the unstructured way they play.
“The Jean-Bouin is a great stadium but that (the synthetic pitch) is another consideration because we are a big physical team and Portugal are a quick, nimble team. So there are some challenges for us at the weekend around the surface and the opponents and making sure, tactically, we are very good at what we do.”
The 2024 Rugby Europe Championship final kicks off at 20:00 GMT and brings a bumper day of rugby in the French capital to a climax.
Belgium and Poland get proceedings underway at 12:00, as they compete for seventh place, the fifth-place decider between the Netherlands and Germany follows at 13:45, before Romania take on Spain for the bronze medal at 17:15.
Comments on RugbyPass
Interesting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
37 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
1 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
33 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to comments