Potential upsets at this years WC - year of the minnow?

[tranquility]

Georgia will cause some pain. The backs are never much but some of their forwards are amazing.

This is not a smart arse comment, as I actually do not know much about the Georgian rugby side and am interested to learn. However, like most of us I know they play a forward dominated game, with a massive pack who love scrums and any sentence that involves the word 'pick' and or 'go'.

Knowing all of this, which of their forwards would you consider to be amazing? I will keep an eye out.

 

[Linus]

Agree with Gnostic, I was at the Fiji USA game and was by far the most entertaining I got to see out of 5 matches I attended, that is what the RWC is about, in addition naturally to finding a champion.

 

[exISA]

This is not a smart arse comment, as I actually do not know much about the Georgian rugby side and am interested to learn. However, like most of us I know they play a forward dominated game, with a massive pack who love scrums and any sentence that involves the word 'pick' and or 'go'.

Knowing all of this, which of their forwards would you consider to be amazing? I will keep an eye out.

I can't remember exact names as their names are hard at best to pronounce - but their front row and scrum over all are fearsome. I remember watching them in Perth in 2003 thinking that when they have a few years under their belts that they would be competitive, 4 years later I watched them play Argentina in one of the most physical battles I have seen. They have an amazing ruck and mauling game, but the ones I would watch out for are definitely their tight 5. As Ive already stated and others as well - their backs (at least in 2007) were not much chop and thats what let them down. Who knows what might happen this time.

Heres some highlights from the Argie game so you can see for yourself.
[video=youtube;-OvdJfDplks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OvdJfDplks[/video]

 

[rustycruiser]

Knowing all of this, which of their forwards would you consider to be amazing? I will keep an eye out.

Keep your eye on Davit Kubriashvili, their tight head pro. Only in his early 20s, yet has been keeping Carl Hayman sitting on the pine with the other reserves at Toulon.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

as above, I don't all the names...good chance they end in 'villi' though.
their number 8 gorgdoze in particular is a beast. he plays for montpellier and is just ferocious all around the park.
their tight head and loose head are both very strong. along with kubriashvilli at toulon, i understand Khinchagishvili at brive is a powerful front rower.
nearly their whole squad plays in france in either the top 14 or the pro d2.

a friend of mine played at montauban when they were in the top 14 and back then they had a few georgians. he said the most incredible thing about them as forwards was their work rate...they would be hitting rucks just as hard in the 79th minute as in the 1st minute.... and of course their seeming inability to feel pain.

 

[Braveheart81]

I'm a bit suspicious that this sudden interest in who exactly the key players are from the minnows is so people can put some cheap players in their Fantasy Rugby World Cup sides.

 

[tblackadder]

in relation to the minnows...bob dwyer gave a good discussion on changes to the japans game under eddie jones/kirwan in the ruggamatrix podcast...which was pretty interesting

by the way worst name for a podcast....

 

[blindsider]

[video=youtube;3muchC9D2YU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3muchC9D2YU&NR=1[/video]

Have a look at the Georgian breakaway/#8!!

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

will be interesting to see dan parks defend agains that.

 

[barbarian]

Bit of an unlucky break for Romania, with their starting winger withdrawing due to, wait for it... a fear of flying. Sad stuff really, and unlucky for the Romanians.

Fercu withdraws over fear of flying

Romania have been forced into a late change ahead of the World Cup after their star winger Catalin Fercu withdrew due to a fear of flying.

Fercu - who has 51 Test caps and made three appearances for the national side during the 2007 World Cup - withdrew from the squad at the last minute. The winger had reservations over the 40 hour journey to New Zealand. In his place, Adrian Apostol has been named as his replacement.

"After many discussions with Catalin, he told us he cannot pass the fear of flying so many hours," head of the Romanian Rugby Federation Alin Petrache said.

"We tried to convince him but we didn't succeed. We are very disappointed about Fercu's decision, because he was one of our best players, and he proved that in the last two preparation games in Ukraine and France."

Romania open their World Cup campaign against Scotland in Invercargill on September 10.

 

[tranquility]

I am genuinely excited about the watching the Georgian pack now, god this is going to be a good couple of weeks.