The Georgia national rugby union team beat Russia 33:0 in the 4^th round of European Championship. However, spectators watched a good game only the last 15 minutes.

In the first half “The Lelos” made us nervous because they made lots of mistakes. The Russia national team played well in defense more than an hour. Overall, our rugby players have better level than “Bears”.

Lasha Khmaladze’s injury changed plans of Milton Haig in the middle of the first half. It must be noted that Mchedlidze caused a lot of problems to the opponent defense. Overall, those experiments which the coaches had planned before the game did not justify.

We made many mistakes in the first half. Like the previous matches, lineout did not work well; traditionally, we dropped ball in front; we made some mistakes in defense; individual players made mistakes in some episodes and if our opponent had been with better level, we would have been punished for that.

The beginning was ours – Merab Kvirikashvili scored penalty – 3:0. It is worth mentioning that “Meko” held this game at high level. He scored all 7 penalties. Besides that, Merab earned incredible assists.

After the penalty the Georgians could not keep ball, the Russians controlled it. At the 10^th minute our opponent had a chance to restore balance but Gaisin missed it. He missed another chance in 4 minutes.

At the 20^th minute “Bears” had a chance to score a try but young Aptsiauri tackled the opponent. Soon Gaisin missed another penalty from 40 meters. Then, the Russians made a foul and Kvirikashvili scored penalty from 40 meters.

At the end of the half the Georgians had a chance to score a try but Aptsiauri could not catch assist and the first half finished 6:0.

The beginning of the second half showed territorial advantage of the Georgians. At the 55^th minute Kvirikashvili scored penalty – 9:0.

Soon referee sin-binned Mikheil Nariashvili. However, the Georgians managed to score another penalty and advanced 12:0. At the 66^th minute referee sin-binned Nikolay Serkov.

Soon Nariashvili joined the team and Davit Kacharava scored his 17^th try. Kvirikashvili used conversion – 19:0.

The Georgians gained advantage and kept it till the end of the match. Zhvania scored the second try and Kvirikashvili used another conversion.

The third try was very beautiful. Kvirikashvili assisted Aseishvili who scored his first try in the national team. Kvirikashvili scored conversion and the match finished 33:0. The decisive match against Romania will take place in Bucharest on March 21.

The 2015 European Championship

IV round. 14 March

Tbilisi. “Mikheil Meskhi”. 28 000 spectators

Georgia – Russia 33:0 (6:0)

Georgia: 15. Merab Kvirikashvili, 14. Giorgi Aptsiauri, 13. Davit Kacharava, 12. Merab Sharikadze, 11. Aleksi Khutsishvili (23. Muraz Giorgadze 77), 10. Lasha Khmaladze (22. Tamaz Mchedlidze 20), 9. Vasil Lobzhanidze (21. Vazha Khutsishvili 70); 1.Mikheil Nariashvili (17. Karlen Aseishvili 68), 2. Simon Maisuradze (16. Zurab Zhvania 45), 3. Davit Zirakashvili (18. Levan Chilachava 70), 4. Giorgi Nemsadze, 5. Vakhtang Maisuradze (19. Kote Mikautadze 52), 6. Shalva Sutiashvili (cap.), 7. Mamuka Gorgodze (20. Lasha Lomidze 75), 8. Beka Bitsadze (17. Karlen Aseishvili 61+68).

3 tries: Kacharava (71), Zhvania (79), Aseishvili (80+)

3 conversions: Kvirikashvili

4 penalties: Kvirikashvili

1 sin-binned: Nariashvili (58)

Head coach: Milton Haig (New Zealand)

Coaches: Ilia Maisuradze, Ilia Zedginidze, Irakli Machkhaneli, Michael Bradley (Ireland), Didier Bes (France)

Russia: 15. Vasily Artemyev (22. Yuri Kushnarev 37), 14. Mikhail Babaev, 13. Dimitry Gerasimov, 12. Vladimir Rudenko (23. Andrei Otrokov 11), 11. Igor Kurashov, 10. Ramil Gaisin, 9. Alexey Shcherban (21. Rushan Iagudin 72); 1. Sergey Novoselov (17. Sergey Sekisov 45), 2. Stanislav Selskiy (16. Vladimir Korshunov 65), 3. Innokenty Zykov (18. Andrei Igretsov 72), 4. Andrei Garbuzov, 5. Andrei Ostrikov (20. Nikolay Serkov 45), 6. Andrei Temnov (cap.), 7. Pavel Butenko, 8. Viktor Gresev (19. Artem Patakhov 72).

2 sin-binned: Serkov (66), Butenko (73)

Head coach: Alexander Pervukhin

Referee: Neil Hennessy (Wales)

Germany - Romania 12:17

Portugal - Spain 8:19

V round. 21 March

Romania – Georgia

Russia – Portugal

Spain – Germany