a day ago
What time and TV channel is Georgia vs Ireland on today?
What does an Ireland team look like when sixteen players are away with the Lions and a further two front-line stars, Caelan Doris and Robbie Henshaw, are injured?Well like this one lining up to play the first of two summer test matches, against Georgia and Portugal.
Actually, the good news is that players such as Jamie Osborne, Sam Prendergast, Craig Casey and Ryan Baird are in situ while recently capped Jimmy O'Brien, Thomas Clarkson, Cormac Izuchukwu and Gus McCarthy are in the are two debutants in the line-up, Leinster's powerhouse winger Tommy O'Brien who could do no wrong post-Christmas and Connacht's beanpole second-row Darragh Murray (pronounced Muh-ray if you must know...)Munster cause-celebre Gavin Coombes gets a chance to make his case with a rare have mustered a selection show-casing nine players who play in France, six from the Top 14 and three from PROD2 (see team sheet at bottom).The other six are with Black Lions, the side selected from their domestic league and coached by national coach Richard Cockerill that represents Georgia on an invite in the EPCR European Challenge Cup. They've beaten Scarlets 23-7 in Llanelli in 2023 and Vannes 22-19 in Tbilisi mightn't get any easier with those coming from the bench either as it has a similar Top14/PROD2/Black Lion make up. Tedo Abzhandadze, incidentally, went to Terenure is what you need to know about the match:Where and when is it?The match takes place at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi on Saturday, July time is kick-off?The action gets under way at 6pm Irish are the match officials?Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)Assistant referees: Adam Leal (England) & Ben Whitehouse (Wales)TMO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)QUOTES CORNERPaul O'Connell, Interim Ireland coach said: "They have a mixture of players playing in France who bring a real, I suppose, flair to what they do and the Black Lion players have impressed a lot of the coaches as well. The likes of Mikeil Babunasvili and Luke Ivanasvilli from a forward point of view, these kinds of guys are really tough, well organised, smart rugby players."They had a good Autumn, nearly beating Italy, they had a good summer, they put 29 points on Australia down there although they didn't beat them. They beat a tier one nation in Japan. They've been steadily beating tier one nations in the last number of years. So it's a brilliant test match for our players."Georgia Coach Richard Cockerill on the burning agenda in Georgia rugby: "If you are finishing bottom of the Six Nations why do you just get free rein to turn up next year and play?"We want the opportunity to prove that we can compete, so surely that's logical we get the opportunity to have a play-off."We feel we are probably a little bit too strong for the second level tournament although the other teams are improving, especially Spain and Romania, but for us to improve we need to play at a tougher level. Italy had that opportunity in the early 2000s."It would be the richest game in World Rugby - Georgia versus Wales at some point in the near future to see who plays in the Six Nations for the next tournament. That's jeopardy, isn't it? That would be a game people would want to watch."We feel we've earned the right, we want the opportunity to prove that potentially we're good enough to compete on a regular basis at that level."Debutant Tommy O'Brien, just turned 27, finally fully fit and finishing the season as one of Leinster's most valued players: "I guess I've known what I can do in training but it's obviously behind closed doors so the general public wouldn't see it."But I had a bit of confidence in what I was doing and the fact you're training in Leinster with such high level players, such international quality players, I took a bit of confidence from that and I felt I just needed to get a chance to get a couple of games under my YOU KNOW: Ireland beat Georgia 14-10 at RWC 2007 - thanks to Denis Leamy getting his hand under the ball preventing a touchdown after Georgia had crossed the Irish line looking to touch down in the 78th minute. DID YOU KNOW: Georgia are ranked no11 in the world, one place above ODDSGeorgia win: 7/1Ireland win: 1/10Draw: 35/1What TV CHANNEL IS IT ON?The match will be shown on Virgin Media - Joe Molloy will lead coverage with Ian Madigan, Andrew Trimble as studio analysts. John Forrest will be commentator with Alan Quinlan as co-commentator. Coverage begins 5.30pmTEAMSGeorgia : 15 Davit Niniashvili (Lyon); 14 Akaki Tabutsadze (Black Lion), 13 Demur Tapladze (Grenoble), 12 Giorgi Kveseladze (Black Lion), 11 Sandro Todua (Black Lion); 10 Luka Matkava (Castres), 9 Vasil Lobzhanidze (Oyonnax);1 Giorgi Akhaladze (ASM Clermont), 2 Vano Karkadze (Montpellier), 3 Irakli Aptsiauri Lyon), 4 Mikheil Babunashvili (Black Lion), 5 Lado Chachanidze (Black Lion), 6 Luka Ivanishvili (Black Lion), 7 Beka Saghinadze (Lyon), 8 Tornike Jalagonia (Provence),Replacements: 16 Irakli Kvatadze (Black Lion), 17 Giorgi Tetrashvili (Perpignan), 18 Beka Gigashvili (Toulon), 19 Giorgi Javakhia (Grenoble), 20 Ilia Spanderashvili (Valence), 21 Mikheil Alania (Black Lion), 22 Tedo Abzhandadze (Aurillac), 23 Tornike Kakhoidze (Black Lion).Ireland: 15 Jimmy O'Brien; 14 Tommy O'Brien, 13 Jamie Osborne, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale; 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Craig Casey; 1 Jack Boyle, 2 Gus McCarthy, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 4 Cormac Izuchukwu, 5 Darragh Murray, 6 Ryan Baird, 7 Nick Timony, 8 Gavin CoombesReplacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Jack Aungier, 19 Tom Ahern, 20 Cian Prendergast, 21 Ben Murphy, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Calvin Nash.
