Slim victory for Georgia over Namibia

Georgia have all but secured their spot at the 2019 World Cup with a paper-thin 17-16 victory over Namibia in Exeter on Wednesday. Neither team would be particularly pleased with their performance, with countless handling errors and poor discipline resulting in an exhausting deluge of penalties and yellow cards. With the officiating team determined to flag every instance of non-compliance, the first half stretched to a farcical nine minutes of injury time, surely a red flag for the appointments committee.

A penalty from Theuns Kotzé game Namibia an early lead, but Georgia would soon be on the ascendency with some wide attacking play. With the Welwitschias under pressure deep in their own end, the Lelos looked to have stripped the ball and fast hands put Sandro Todua over in the corner, but the TMO curiously ruled the score void because of a knock-on, despite the replay indicating that there was no clear evidence of one after the strip.

Somehow it was Namibia again who put points on the board, with Kotze’s sweet striking to the fore after a Georgian tackle was deemed dangerously high. The Lelos continued to create chances to score, yet somehow could not get over the line. As the endless half stretched well into tea time, Mamuka Gorgodze picked from a scrum and offloaded to Vito Kolelishvili on the inside, but yet again they were denied as the pass forward, mercifully bringing a close the opening stanza.

The inevitable came at last in the 50th minute with Renaldo Bothma in the bin, when captain Gorgodze himself crashed through two defenders to put his team on the board. A second try came just almost immediately after, this time it was Lasha Malaghuradze who took a lovely offload from Giorgi Tkhilaishvili to dive in under the sticks and extend the lead to two scores. Merab Kvirikashvili followed with a penalty to give Georgia a very solid footing heading into the final ten minutes.

Incredibly it was the Welwitcshias who made it an exciting finish, with Kotzé knocking over his third penalty before crossing himself in the corner, nailing the sideline conversion to make things interesting. Georgia regained after the restart and worked their way back into Namibian territory to clinch the win, but it was a tense few minutes before they could celebrate their best ever World Cup tournament.

NAMIBIA 16
Tries – T. Kotzé (74)
Cons – T. Kotzé (75)
Pens – T. Kotzé (2, 18, 71)
Yellow cards – R. Larson (40+), J. Coetzee (40+), R. Bothma (51)

GEORGIA 17
Tries – M. Gorgodze (50), L. Malaghuradze (55)
Cons – M. Kvirikashvili (51, 56)
Pens – M. Kvirikashvili (68)
Yellow cards – J. Bregvadze (35)

NAMIBIA
1 J. Redelinghuys (J. Engels 60) 2 T. van Jaarsveld 3 R. Larson (J. Coetzee 60 {L. van der Westhuizen 71}) 4 P. van Lill (W. Conradie 68) 5 T. Uanivi 6 J. Burger (capt.) (R. Kitshoff 10) 7 T. du Plessis (W. Conradie 60-68) 8 R. Bothma 9 E. Jantjies (D. Stevens 68) 10 T. Kotzé 11 R. van Wyk 12 D. de la Harpe (J. Tromp 76) 13 D. van Wyk (H. Smit 28) 14 D. Philander (J. Coetzee 40-51) 15 C. Botha

GEORGIA
1 M. Nariashvili (K. Asieshvili 36) 2 J. Bregvadze (S. Mamukashvili 57) 3 D. Zirakashvili 4 G. Nemsadze 5 K. Mikautadze (L. Datunashvili 57) 6 G. Tkhilaishvili 7 V. Kolelishvili (L. Lomidze HT) 8 M. Gorgodze (capt.) 9 V. Lobzhanidze (G. Begadze 66) 10 L. Malaghuradze 11 S. Todua 12 M. Sharikadze 13 D. Kacharava 14 T. Mchedlidze (G. Aptsiauri 43) 15 M. Kvirikashvili (B. Tsiklauri 76)