Georgia v Ireland, Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi, Saturday, 6pm Irish time – Live on Virgin Media One
Results matter, but it’s not a deflection to suggest there is far more at stake than the outcome when Ireland take on Georgia on Saturday night in Tbilisi. At its very heart is individual jeopardy, the chance for players to step up or tumble back into a pursuing pack of peers eager to wrestle away a jersey.
Fitting in takes them so far on the training ground, learning by rote and repetition, but the Test match environment is different. It requires some free thinking and freestyling, an ability to interpret, adapt and adjust in a nanosecond when struggling to breathe, never mind think. That’s when reputations are burnished or burned.
It can be very unforgiving. Six Ireland players in Saturday’s squad, as yet uncapped, will be put through a rigorous initiation process. They know what’s coming but can they cope or, even better, flourish? Two of them, right wing Tommy O’Brien and secondrow Darragh Murray, who will call the lineout, won’t have to sit on their nerves in the stands.
Pedigree-wise they are excellent prospects. Ireland’s interim head coach Paul O’Connell endorsed their readiness.
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“Tommy has just had a real bad run with injuries over the last number of years but it’s very interesting, sometimes a player will come close to the squad, or they come in and train but the players from that province will say, ‘he’s really good by the way, he does this really well’.
“You know he’s a good player when the players are talking about a player and saying as soon as he’s injury-free or as soon as he gets a run at games, he’s going to be excellent. A lot of the Leinster guys have always said that about Tommy O’Brien.
“Johnny Sexton, in particular, is really complimentary of him. But he’s everything you’d want as a player. He’s fast, he’s creative, he’s brave, he’s not afraid to try things. He’s really, really tough as well. He just gets on with it in training. He’s a fantastic player. We’re very excited to give him an opportunity.
“Darragh is a big man, 120 kilos, but he’s a lovely, calm presence in the lineout, calm presence around the field. You don’t have to explain things much to Darragh, he just gets them straight away. When he comes in with us, like when we had him on the Emerging Tour, he just gets it very quickly and gets going very quickly. So, it’s exciting for the two of them.”
They’re far from alone. Everyone has something to prove. A cohort of frontline Ireland players are a hemisphere away and, in their absence, opportunity beckons. In a macro sense there’s no doubting the importance of this Test match as a marker en route to the 2027 World Cup in Australia, just shy of the two-year klaxon.
It would take a small forest to itemise everything that’s at stake for individual Irish players but in a broader context, how the halfbacks fare and manage the game, Craig Casey’s captaincy, the Ireland scrum, breakdown and attacking fluency are some of the headings that will interest supporters.
There was a time when discussing Georgia started and finished with their love of a scrum and a collision but that would do the current side a huge disservice. Richard Cockerill has given them a framework, assisted by Templeogue’s finest, Conor McPhillips, Roddy Grant and Australian Julian Salvi. You don’t have all that rugby IQ and not benefit.
Cockerill smiled during the week when asked if rain might make for a more attritional contest. It was on his wish list, but the forecast is for a dry night. It’s not as if Georgia are one-dimensional in orientation, as they have one of the best backs in world rugby in La Rochelle-bound fullback Davit Niniashvili.
Right wing Akaki Tabutsadze has scored 50 tries in 51 Tests, centre Giorgi Kveseladze made a huge impression during his time at Gloucester, while replacement outhalf Tedo Abzhandadze spent a season playing with the Terenure under-20s. There’s the usual cast of quality forwards, with a healthy tranche of the team playing their club rugby in France.
Asking locally about the likely atmosphere the word “bear pit” came up more than once. For those that like a lesser spotted statistic, something’s got to give as neither Georgia nor Ireland has lost when refereed by an Italian. Andrea Piardi, who will referee the first Test between Australia and the British and Irish Lions, has the whistle in Tbilisi. It promises to be a belter.
GEORGIA: D Niniashvili (La Rochelle); A Tabutsadze (Black Lion), D Tapladze (Black Lion), G Kveseladze (Grenoble), S Todua (Black Lion); L Matkava (Oyonnax), V Lobzhanidze (Oyonnax); G Akhaladze (Clermont), V Karkadze (Oyonnax), I Aptsiauri (Lyon); M Babunashvili (Black Lion), L Chachanidze (Stade Montois); L Ivanishvili (Black Lion), B Saghinadze (Lyon, capt), T Jalagonia (Provence).
Replacements: I Kvatadze (Black Lion), G Tetrashvili (USA Perpignan), B Gigashvili (RC Toulon), G Javakhia (FC Grenoble), I Spanderashvili (Valence-Romans), M Alania (RC Vannes), T Abzhandadze (Stade Aurillacois), Tornike Kakhoidze (Black Lion).
IRELAND: Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster); Tommy O’Brien (Leinster); Jamie Osborne (Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), Jacob Stockdale (Ulster); Sam Prendergast (Leinster), Craig Casey (Munster, capt); Jack Boyle (Leinster), Gus McCarthy (Leinster), Thomas Clarkson (Leinster); Cormac Izuchukwu (Ulster), Darragh Murray (Connacht); Ryan Baird (Leinster), Nick Timoney (Ulster), Gavin Coombes (Munster).
Replacements: Tom Stewart (Ulster), Michael Milne (Munster), Jack Aungier (Connacht), Tom Ahern (Munster), Cian Prendergast (Connacht), Ben Murphy (Connacht), Jack Crowley (Munster), Calvin Nash (Munster).
Referee: A Piardi (Italy).
