Georgia upset Canada in Tbilisi last weekend, winning 19-15 but all everyone has been speaking about since was this wild fight. You may have seen some of it already, but here’s a slightly better version and of course, it is now archived in Big Hits & Dirty Play.
Over 15000 fans were on hand at the National Stadium to witness Georgia beating Canada for the second time ever, tying up their record of having each won twice against one another.
The Lelos haven’t lost at their National Stadium fortress in ten years. Their last defeat at the intimidating ground was against Romania in 2003, and before that to the same team in 2000.
Shortly before halftime chaos erupted as flanker Viktor Kolelishvili high-tackled flyhalf Liam Underwood, which Canada’s Tyler Ardron took exception to, and the fists started flying.
Mamuke Gorgodze, known as one of the hardest men in world rugby, could be seen apologising to referee Lourens van der Merwe for the tackle but as soon as he saw what was going on, he set off.
Everyone joined in, and when it was all over, both Kolelishvili and Ardron were red carded.
“We won the match but I am not completely satisfied. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half. We could have played better,” said Milton Haig, Georgian national team head coach.
“As for the incident in the first half, I know, Georgians are fighters but rugby lovers would not like it. It does not happen at international level. We must learn how to be patient and if Viktor had been patient, perhaps, he would have (only) been sin-binned.”
Canada dropped a place in the world rankings from 14th to 15th, while Georgia gained 1.2 points but are still in 16th position. They’ll earn 0.30 points if they beat the USA this coming weekend.
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