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GEORGIA

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Georgia Profile

Wednesday 23rd July 2003

Colours: Wine, grey, black (alternative: wine, grey, white)
Nicknames: Lelos

Stormers and Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery has dominated the press lately, not necessarily for the right reasons. The flamboyant blonde has come into the spotlight yet again, but this time his fans will be relieved to hear Monty has been invited to join the Barbarians squad for their tour of England, Scotland and Wales later this month.

Coach: Their coach is Claude Saurel, a 54-year-old former Béziers flanker who was once Morrocco's national coach. He made the move to Georgia in 1997 and has been very much a part of the Lelos' rise to prominence. In Patrick Fort he has a French backline coach.

Captain: The captaincy is shared between Ilia Zedginidze and Vassil Katsadze, due to the former battles with an injury.

Player(s) to watch: The most-capped player is flyhalf and kicker Pavel Jimsheladze with 37 caps, followed by prop Levan Tsabadze (33), flank Guia Labadze (32), locks Zurab Mtchedlishvili and Vano Nadiradze with 31 each and hooker Akvsenti Guiorgadze (30).

Profile: Despite being part of the USSR Georgia founded its own Rugby Union in 1964 and in 1988 gained recognition from the International Rugby Board as an independent union.

Georgia then banded with other FIRA countries to bring Zimbabwe to Europe.

Zimbabwe's first match on the tour was in the wet against Georgia in Kutaisi, west of Tbilisi. Georgia won 16-3. The next year Georgia took itself down to Zimbabwe where they played two tests, losing the first in Bulawayo and winning the second 26-10 in Harare.

Georgia was now a rugby nation but getting matches was not easy. It was limited to the odd game against the Ukraine until it gained membership of the IRB in 1992.

Georgian rugby first made an impact at Sevens and the game took off in the country, the travel and opportunities to land lucrative contracts in France made rugby something of a glamour pursuit in Georgia.

Having failed to qualified for the 1999 Rugby World Cup Georgia bounced back by winning the European Nations Cup in 2001 - the 'Six Nations B'.

Despite the sad financial state of their union, qualification for the 2003 Rugby World Cup has seen the sport's appeal swell across Georgia.