After recent positive progress, Georgia's form this month has been dire and a step back. Whether it's just a blip remains to be seen, but a third subpar performance in a row against Japan would leave confidence dented and a fair amount of concern over their World Cup challenge.
There was a little bit of mitigation for the disastrous scoreline against Ireland when you factor in the misfortune of having a player stretchered off, the minute after a sin bin, and a couple minutes after emptying the bench (including the baffling early substitution of one of leading forward Vito Kolelishvili) meaning a tiring side was down to 13 men when the tries really started to leak.
However that the scoreline may have been slightly exaggerated the poor performance as a result of that misfortune, shouldn't disguise what was another disappointingly subpar performance from Georgia, who really didn't give the best account of themselves in the rare trip to a leading nation.
The performance followed on from a similar disappointing display against Tonga as well, and the month has so far felt like a big step back for the side. The match against Japan on Sunday is now of added importance. A big performance would reassure that the last two games were just bad days at the office. A performance like the last couple games would mean three poor games in a row and bring back concerns as to the team’s progress.
After the win over Samoa last November, followed up by decisively trumping ENC rivals to reach the World Cup as Europe 1, it seemed Georgia under Milton Haig had turned a corner after a series of abject performances in 2012/13.
However in the last two outings has pretty much seen the performances revert to the kind of stuff that was seen in the losses to Japan and Fiji in November 2012.
The key characteristic of those defeats was an inability to keep the ball. The fresh initiative to attack wide more often regularly resulted in fumbling the ball and turning the ball over after a couple phases when in the opponent's half. Meanwhile a lot of the kicking was down the opponent's throat, and just putting the side back under more pressure.
The progress on these issues that saw possession used with more efficiency has evaporated these last two games and returned back to that November 2012 form. Haig commented after the Tonga defeat that he told the team at half time to take more care of the ball; they ended up defending nearly the entire half. There were various times against Ireland where the decision making was unbelievably poor (Begadze kicking down the throat of the back three when under pressure along with various other times the 9/10/15 kicks ended up under with the side under pressure, Kvirikashvili running nowhere but to touch, running off scrum advantages when down to 13 men, running off and getting isolated when down to 13/14 men).
Statistically the changes are clear. Ceding 64% to Ireland (along with 70% territory), meant the side had to go through 178 tackles to their opponents 100. The previous week Georgia went through 124 tackles to Tonga's 44. That means they have made 302 tackles in two games, more than twice the amount of the opponents.
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| Sharikadze (above) and Tkhilaishvili have made around 70 tackles between them in 2 games as their side has been either been fumbling or kicking away possession the whole time. |
To their credit, they have by and large defended tenaciously for periods of both games. Flanker Giga Tkhilaishvili has been credited with 36 tackles in two games but by the same token only touched the ball twice against Ireland. Centre Merab Sharikadze has been credited 35 including a whopping 22 against Ireland.
However Georgia are not going to be winning much with such little ball. Unlike Fiji they don't tend to run in long distance tries off counter attacks, nor is there either the discipline or fitness to soak up pressure and win low scoring games.
To beat Japan on Sunday, or any decent opponent in the near future, the side needs to protect possession better, which leads to the question about whether to withdraw some of the wide attacks.
Back in the 2011 World Cup, Georgia gave some decent challenges to both England and Argentina particularly for first 50 or so where they were level pegging before falling away (it should be noted they played both off 3 day turnarounds against sides with a full week). The pre-Haig strategy was far narrower, much more one dimensional relying on a big ball carrying back row to rumble it upfield. However possession was retained far more efficiently, they had more possession against both England and Argentina at the World Cup, just weren't particularly threatening with it.
Despite having a settled experienced core of players, with some promising youth results and young talent coming through, performances at senior level went backwards in the 18 months after that tournament. But Haig was appointed with a mandate to broaden the attacking play, and he explained after the Fiji game that they may have to take a step back on the way to achieving that goal.
To be fair to Haig, progress appeared to be being made over the 2013/14 season, with the 10/12 combination beginning to gel and the backline having more input in creating tries. The last two matches have undoubtedly been a considerable step back in performance, it could be just part of a bumpy ride to a better future and it’s too early to start pressing panic buttons. But without reassurance of a decent performance against Japan, then it will be very worrying heading into the World Cup and important games against Tonga and Argentina with the last three outings against that level of opposition being forgettable ones.
