Why Ireland selectors got it wrong against Georgia
Ireland have named a strong team to take on Georgia in Tbilisi and it needed to be.
This is not the type of soft-serve, summer jaunt usually associated with summer development tours. Georgia are a grizzled outfit, packed with players hardened by exposure to the Top14 and ProD2 leagues in France.
In their last four outings, they beat Tonga at home, lost by three points to Italy away, pushed Australia all the way in Sydney and beat Japan away.
Paul O’Connell. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady
They are a team built around the traditional brute force of their forwards but in recent years they have unearthed genuinely exciting young backs – including the highly regarded Davit Niniashvili, who has just joined Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
But perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the Georgian side that takes on Paul O’Connell’s youthful Ireland outfit tomorrow is the sense of grievance they carry with them.
Their head coach Richard Cockerill has never been backwards about coming forward (going right back to his confrontation with All Black Norm Hewitt in 1997) and has been beating the drum loudly heading into this fixture.
Davit Niniashvili is highly regarded. Pic: Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
What Cockerill and Georgian rugby want is a seat at the top table and he believes they are being deliberately kept on the outside looking in because it does not suit the powers that be to allow these ‘rough and ready’ upstarts into the Six Nations at the expense of one of the established, and well heeled, existing residents.
Cockerill wants a play-off with the bottom side in the Six Nations and it is a fair call — the problem is the Six Nations blazers are not as keen and cannot appear to consider the prospect of travelling to Tbilisi instead of Rome, or of Wales dropping to the second tier.
The longer Georgia are excluded, the more they are at risk of losing their government’s funding because winning the second tier Rugby Europe competition is not enough to keep the tap on.
Cockerill will have his Georgians target Sam Prendergast. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
It gives Cockerill’s side a hell of an incentive to beat a top-tier nation like Ireland and they are going to throw everything at it. On that basis, it is more than a little surprising that Sam Prendergast has been lobbed in to start. It has been a tumultuous season for the young Leinster man, some sublime attacking play counterbalanced by defensive howlers.
Cockerill will have his Georgians target Prendergast directly whereas Portugal will be far less physical next week.
Starting Jack Crowley at 10 against Georgia and protecting Prendergast would have been the more pragmatic move — unless the intention, two years out from the World Cup, is to try to improve his defence the hard way.
Leinster flyer Tommy O’Brien will be desperate to make a statement after a strong season with his province. Pic: David Rogers/Getty Images
It is a bit of a gamble because if Prendergast gets run over by the Georgians, it will further dent his confidence.
Elsewhere, Ireland have named six debutants in their match-23 with Leinster flyer Tommy O’Brien desperate to make a statement after a strong season with his province.
