Saturday, August 11, 2007

Emerging Georgia have first win on their mind

Odds as long as 5000-1 to win the rugby World Cup suggest Georgia's chances of causing an upset in France are not just slim, but positively anorexic.

The former Soviet bloc country are still very much an emerging nation in the game and their rugby union pedigree contrasts strongly with the world's leading sides.

It is only 18 years since they played their first international against Zimbabwe and 15 since they gained membership of the International Rugby Board (IRB), while there are only eight rugby pitches and some 300 adult players in the country and certainly no professional league.

But the Lelos made it to the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France with a 28-14 aggregate play-off win over another qualifier, Portugal, and have a genuine chance of claiming their first scalp in the tournament having been drawn in the same group as fellow minnows Namibia. [More]

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