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Sunwolves announce first Georgian to play Super Rugby

Bold prediction by Jamie Joseph

The Sunwolves have named their squad for the 2018 Super Rugby season, and there are a few familiar and interesting names.

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49-test hooker Jaba Bregvadze will become the first Georgian to play in Super Rugby, the latest move in a career that has seen him play at Toulon, Worcester and lately Russian outfit Krasny Yar.

Bregvadze is a veteran of Georgia’s last two World Cup campaigns, in 2011 and 2015. New Sunwolves coach Jamie Joseph is excited to have him on board, as per the Japan Times.

“One of our biggest work-ons is the set piece so it’s great we have the leader of the Georgian scrum and line-out, as we know how strong they are,” Joseph said of the 30-year-old Bregvadze.

Joseph has also enlisted the help of a couple of former Highlanders, the team he took to a Super Rugby title in 2015. Former Maori All Black utility back Robbie Robinson and first five Hayden Parker will turn out for the Sunwolves, to give them some much-needed experience.

Robinson has been playing in the Japan Top League for Ricoh and Toyota after leaving NZ in 2014. Parker has also had a short stint with Panasonic, however has spent the majority of his Super Rugby career sitting on the bench behind Lima Sopoaga at the Highlanders.

Other new faces include South Africans Ruan Smith, Craig Millar, Grant Hattingh and Gerhard van den Heever, and Japan test player and former Chief Michael Leitch.

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Sunwolves squad for 2018: Keita Inagaki, Asaeli Aivalu, Jiwon Koo, Ruan Smith, Craig Millar, Jaba Bradvadze, Shota Horie, Grant Hattingh, Sam Wykes, Kazuki Imeno, Uwe Helu, Edward Quirk, Shunsuke Nunomaki, Wimpie van der Walt, Willem Britz, Michael Leitch, Fumiaki Tanaka, Yu Tamura, Hayden Parker, Harumichi Tatekawa, Timoth Lafaele, Gerhard van den Heever, Kenki Fukuoka, Akihit Yamada, Lamano Lava Lemeki, Robbie Robinson.

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J
JW 47 minutes ago
'France may leave top players at home but will still be serious contenders in New Zealand'

My list is just the current fit squad shown on wikipedia (I know I know!) minus the two teams. Just trying to get a picture of how many of the arguably “top 40” are coming (that would be half) and where they need filling out.


Like I see another post mentioned Berdeu was mentioned at 10 where I’d imagine the poster likes the look of the player, where I was just going by my very rudimentary hierarchy and stat (what opta have of the stats hub and where Berdeu is fairly low) visibility.

If Toulouse or, and, Bordeaux are not in the final

It might be overly critical but with the current state of the Top 14 I can’t see it being anyone else J Marc.


You touch on a very pertinent question I have been asking myself though, what is going to happen to the players outside the Finals game day 23?


I’d imagine that the plane to NZ would already have left, so any of the really good players that can’t make the final selection for their club (but could have for France), will still be needed by their club to stay in France incase someone gets injured for the final. Do you know if that is right?


Yeah I feel that they will still apply the ‘premium’ rule to some players, they’ll need a leader though.


So you think he will try to look to the future rather than make the most competitive team possible?


That might make it a lot easier, it will be very interesting what Razor does in that same respect though J Marc! It’s sounding like it’s going to be the exact same group of tested All Blacks again.

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