Last week the Georgia U-18 rugby team finished European Championship in the second place. After beating Ireland and Italy in shootouts, “Little Lelos” lost final to France.

“World Sport” talked to head coach Davit Chavleishvili about the previous matches and future plans.

- Have you thought that you would come back from France with silver medals?

- No, we have not thought about silver medals but we planned to get in Top 4. Our goal was to win the first match. The players carried out instructions well. Italy had a good team. They have won five tests before European Championship. They played Wales well. But we managed to defeat Italy. I think it the weather had been better, we would have won semifinal without shootout.

- What was decisive against Ireland?

- Good defense decided fate of this match. We have analyzed old matches of our opponent and this team played exactly in the same style. We made 186 tackles and only 8 fouls.

- You have mentioned Italy had a very good team. Was the fate of semifinal decided that Italy was our opponent?

- The boys won the previous match and they believed in themselves. Everybody was motivated. We played in defense well.

- We won these two matches with shootouts.

- Nerves played a key role in the both matches. Ireland did not expect such result. The same happened against Italy. After beating Wales, Italy thought they were in final but they were wrong.

- What happened in final?

- France had the best team at this tournament and the previous two matches proved it. Our boys were exhausted and were very nervous against France. Besides that, our No.10 was injured and No.13 played on this position for the first time which was very big stress.

Our rugby players gained a huge experience and now when we will start building a new team, we will need more matches against foreign teams. The Georgian Rugby Union will work on this issue.

- What was feedback to the success of the Georgia U-18 team in France?

- Feedback was really good. Ireland was in shock after losing to us. Nobody expected such result. They thought England and Ireland would have played in final. Everybody admitted our team won deservedly. We were told – “You have big hearts”. After losing final, the French thanked us for fighting till the end. I think it will change attitude toward us and we must prepare better. We must start selection today in order to choose the best players.

- The team gained experience in playing great teams. Will they have chance to enrich their experience in future?

- After two years these boys will play at U-20 World Cup in Tbilisi and they will not have a fear of opponent. I think these boys will work harder now.

- There are some talks that Six Nations must open door for Georgia.

- Yes, it is good but nobody knows when it will happen. Some people are against. Nobody will leave Scotland out of Six Nations. Six Nations teams prefer playing each other. They think it is no use to play us.