Scots are warned - the Georgians are coming

THE GEORGIANS are coming, reads a message in one Invercargill window in anticipation of Richie Dixon’s squad arriving in the city tomorrow night, to complete their preparations for Wednesday’s opening match with the coach’s native Scotland.

But the message is one that could prove prophetic in a much wider sense over the coming years. Dixon expects his team to give Andy Robinson’s Scots a few bloody noses in the scrummage and forward battles, and is preparing some surprises among their backs too. He is hopeful that the ‘Lelos’ will grasp their moment to make the world take note of Georgian rugby, but cautiously advises that Scotland remain the favourites to win.

That is now. Wind on four years and it could be wholly different. We have spoken in these columns before of the £50m being injected into Russian rugby over the next few years as a result of rugby’s inclusion in the Olympic Games, and of how the USA will now start building the sport across its 50 states and 300 million population, through state-funded college and university programmes, in a way only dreamt of in the past.

China is similarly planning new investment in rugby as a result of its Olympic status, while Japan is thrusting significant new monies into the sport in the Far East as it builds to a 2019 World Cup that it will host, and has set itself the minimum target already of reaching the quarter-finals. Those building processes will take time to have effect, but the lesser-known Georgia may make the breakthrough into the world’s top ten before any of them.

They have been building quietly behind the scenes with serious government investment, supported by a rugby-loving president, Mikheil Saakashvili, that runs into several millions of pounds since the 2007 World Cup, which is spawning the development of ten multi-purpose stadiums and a state-of-the-art ‘Shevardeny National Academy’ to bring through native youngsters. This in a country with a population reaching towards Scotland’s five million.

The government provided the land to build the stadia and training centres free, and this World Cup is already the culmination of an initial four-year plan that included strengthening competition with more Test matches through the Six Nations B and Nations Cup, and a new domestic championship. Rugby has now been introduced to all Georgian schools, new sponsors are signing up and the government has helped to set up a charitable foundation called Cartu that will give the academies a sound financial base.

Though ranked 16th in the world, the Georgian Rugby Union believe their national side is not far off the levels of Italy (11th) and are talking of following their lead and pushing for a place with the Six Nations Championship big boys. There is also talk of offering attractive French-style salaries to players around Europe to improve their domestic rugby.

But the focus over the next four weeks is to prove themselves on the world stage and provide inspiration. They certainly have big players, in more ways than one. Mamuka Gorgodze – known as “Gorgodzilla” to his friends – the Montpellier lock/No8 similar in build to Nathan Hines, was voted the French Top 14’s Overseas Player of the Year while a pack including Toulon’s David Kubriashvili, Davit Zirakashvili and Viktor Kolelishvili of Clermont, Goderdzi Shvelidze and Giorgi Chkhaidze (both Montpellier), Akvsenti Giorgadze, from Castres, and David Khinchagishvili and Vasil Kakovin of Brive is one impossible to take lightly.

A journalist told me that the number of Georgian front rows playing in French rugby is not far off three figures, and Dixon admits that he has a major selection headache around who will start in each of their pool matches, having been handed a schedule where his side have just four days between their Scotland and England encounters, and then four again between Romania and Argentina.

After earning plaudits for their play in 2003 from South Africa among others, they made a greater impact in the World Cup in 2007, only losing to Ireland 14-10 after a mammoth contest in Bordeaux in which their physicality shook the Irish to the core, and claiming their first tournament win with a 30-0 defeat of Namibia. Again, they impressed the top seeds, Argentina and France, and it was that which largely fuelled the drive of the four years since to make rugby the national sport of Georgia.

It has also played into the IRB’s push to have more countries more competitive on the world stage and led to the appointment of Dixon as the head coach, with John Muggleton, the former Wallabies defence coach as one of his assistants, as well as ex-All Blacks skipper Sean Fitzpatrick as an adviser and Dixon’s nephew Mark, who has written a book on fitness and conditioning and has helped prepare the squad to cope with matches of World Cup intensity.

The belief in the squad is such that victory over Romania is largely expected, and it is a win against Scotland, Argentina or England that they most desire to take the ‘Lelos’ to the next level. Dixon insists that they still have much to learn, are not as Test-match ready for the tournament as their leading opponents and remain at a disadvantage in the pool because of the differences in quality of competition the players of Scotland, England and even Argentina now enjoy compared with his men. But the wily old Borderer has been around the block and knows the value of sitting on expectations a little. They may not be ready to launch an assault on the quarter-finals yet, but Georgia are at the centre of a rugby revolution and one would not bet against them claiming two wins this time, so picking off one of the pool’s big three, to underline the fact.