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Georgia will be coming to the Americas without their biggest international star. World Cup captain Mamuka Gorgodze has announced his retirement from international rugby, effective immediately, and will miss out on the tour to Canada, the USA, and Argentina. With his 33rd birthday fast approaching and a body that has endured nearly 300 first class matches in his professional career including 71 tests for his country, Gorgodze will step away from the international arena although he may return for one more test on home soil in November.
A huge, bruising loose forward who many consider Georgia’s greatest ever player, Gorgodze’s presence cannot be immediately replaced but Georgian fans will be comforted knowing that several promising young players are now pushing for selection in the senior side. Beka Gorgadze started in four matches during the Rugby Europe Championship while another 21-year-old Otar Giorgadze has graduated from the Clermont academy to senior rugby this season.
Lasha Lomidze, who is rumoured to be joining London Irish next season, will step into the back row vacancy in the short term with marauding Mikheil Gachechiladze, a mobile and creative attacker, also likely to debut during the June tests. A permanent move to the second row had been mooted for Gorgodze with a troublesome knee injury limiting his mobility, but Georgia will not lack for grunt in that department with World Cup pairing Kote Mikautadze and Giorgi Nemsadze set to travel.
