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Wales' four-word response to challenge from Georgia
By Josh Raisey
Wales have swiftly responded to the public challenge made by Georgia for a match later this year.
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Five days after winning the Rugby Europe Championship with a win over Portugal in Paris, Georgia posted an audacious message on X on Friday challenging Warren Gatland’s side to a match in Tbilisi in the autumn, dubbing the contest the match “rugby lovers everywhere want to see”.
Wales fell to 24-21 loss to Italy on Saturday in the final round of the Six Nations, completing a tournament without any wins and therefore earning the wooden spoon.
In response to the message from Georgia, Wales wrote “We’ll be in touch…” on X, teasing fans with the prospect of the match actually coming to fruition at some point in 2024.
Though this would not be an official relegation/promotion battle which has been mooted in recent years, it is nevertheless an emphatic statement being made by Georgia to the Six Nations organisers and the rest of the rugby world.
We’ll be in touch… https://t.co/t4vCfIMTLZ
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 22, 2024
While Georgia did add a clip of their victory over Wales at the Principality Stadium in the autumn of 2022, the two nations did meet again at the World Cup last year with Warren Gatland’s side coming away comfortable 43-19 winners.
It was the 13-12 loss to Georgia in 2022 which spelt the beginning of the end for former Wales coach Wayne Pivac, who was sacked just a few days later and replaced by Gatland.
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The current Wales boss has found himself under a lot of pressure in recent weeks with Wales’ poor campaign, and even said after the loss to Italy that he offered his resignation to the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney.
“I just said to Abi in the changing room, ‘If you want me to resign, I’m quite happy to do that,’” he said.
“She said, ‘Like hell, that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of’.
“But I can promise you we’ll go away and review this really carefully. We’ve already done some review stuff and (we’ll) work on areas that need to improve.”
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