Georgia lay Italians to waste

Friday 20th June 2008

Georgia dissipated all speculations about the various tournament winning scenarios involving Italy A, by demolishing their highly rated opponents 25-3 at the Arcul de Triumf Stadium in Bucharest.

Before the Italians could draw their breath after the national anthems, the Georgians had already scored their first try through their abrasive and highly effective loose head prop David Gasviani.

Though he failed with the conversion, fly-half Lasha Malaguradze landed a penalty some 10 minutes later, which seemed to trigger off a belated Italian reaction. It was a period of about 10 minutes of relentless Italian attacks, which were eventually stopped by ferocious Georgian tackling.

It was the old fashion bone-crunching tackle that stopped the Italians in their tracks time and again. In the end, the Italians opted for a penalty, duly converted by their new fly half Davide Duca.

The match carried on in a similar fashion, with the Italians doing the running and Georgians absorbing the pressure and tackling like men possessed.

With the first half reaching the closing stages, the Georgians found themselves in attack, and at a scrum near the Italian line powered their way for a pushover try, signed off by their athletic openside flanker Irakli Gundishvili. Malaguradze converted just before half-time.

After the break, as the Italian team faded, no doubt worn out by both the intensity of the match as well as the hard and merciless tackling of their opponents, the Georgian game went up a notch, with a net result of another penalty and an additional try by replacement centre Beka Tsiklauri in the closing stages of a ferociously-fought encounter.

The four-point win and the bonus point place Georgia provisionally in the tournament runner-up position, naturally depending on the outcome of the final clash between Romania and Emerging South Africa.

The scorers:

For Italy A:
Pen: Duca

For Georgia:
Tries: Gasviani, Gundishvili, Tsiklauri
Cons: Malaguradze, Uchava
Pens: Malaguradze 2

Italy A: 15 Paolo Buso, 14 Michele Sepe, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Alessio Galante, 11 Andrea Sartoretto, 10 Davide Duca, 9 Giulio Toniolatti, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Nicola Cattina, 6 Paul Derbyshire, 5 Valerio Bernab˛, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Matteo Pietrosanti, 2 Luigi Ferraro (captain), 1 Alberto De Marchi
Replacements: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Lorenzo Giovanchelli, 18 Agustin Cavalieri, 19 Silvio Orlando, 20 Pietro Travagli, 21 Diego Varani, 22 Andrea Barbieri

Georgia: 15 Otar Barkalaia, 14 Giorgi Shkinin, 13 Alexander Todua, 12 Lasha Khmaladze, 11 Irakli Chkhikvadze, 10 Lasha Malaguradze, 9 Bidzina Samkharadze, 8 Besarion Udesiani (captain), 7 Irakli Gundishvili, 6 Simon Maisuradze, 5 Kakhaber Uchava, 4 Giorgi Nemsadze, 3 Giorgi Khositashvili, 2 Iuri Natriashvilii, 1 David Gasviani
Replacements: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Shota Melikidze, 18 Karlen Aseishvili, 19 Viktor Kolelishvili, 20 Giorgi Rokhvadze, 21 Beka Tsiklauri, 22 Irakli Kiasashvili