The best and worst matches for Georgia over the last 4 year World Cup cycle under coach Milton Haig.
Best: 16-15 vs Samoa (November 2013)
Whilst Georgia started 2013 dreadfully, by the end of the year had finally found some form, and finished with this historic victory over Samoa, who at the time were 8th in the World Rankings and had beaten Scotland (27-17) and utterly stomped upon Italy (39-10) earlier that June.
As is often the case with playing Samoa, the Georgians had to weather an early storm. Gorgodze was sin binned for a late tackle and some poor punting put them under pressure and they had to hold Samoa to a score of 12-6 at half time.
But lifted early on in the second half by an individual try from Merab Sharikadze, who had a standout performance, the Georgians put together about 30 minutes of their best rugby and even though they missed several opportunities to build a healthier barrier, were the ones putting the pressure on.
As a result of missed penalties and kicks to touch that ended up with nothing though, the Georgians were forced to endure waves of Samoan attacks late on. 28 phases in total in the final play before Davit Kacharava won a penalty at the breakdown.
This game had notably very few set pieces, so it was credit to the tenacity of the Georgians who must have been exhausted holding on with clock ticking to 87 minutes for the win.
Unlike some others, there was no easy pick for Georgia's best match of the past 4 years. The Japan win was dominant, but was one won nearly all through a huge scrummaging performance, and against weaker opposition. The Romania win in 2014 was a very satisfying and conclusive one, but again there was perhaps a feeling they could have got more tries that day. The most important was the Tonga win at the World Cup, but that was more of a standout defensive performance.
But despite Samoa having a few injuries at the time, they were still fielding a strong side at full strength, and are the best opponent Georgia have beaten to date in a test match.
Other mentions:
35-24 vs Japan (November 2014) - One of the best ever matches the Georgian scrum has had set the platform for a dominant 5 try win and one of Eddie Jones' worst defeats against a Tier 2 side.
22-9 vs Romania (March 2014) - Both sides went through European RWC qualification unbeaten building to this final encounter, but after a nervy start Georgia clearly won the top qualifying spot.
46-0 vs Russia (March 2012) - Georgia have been far from All Black-esque in efficiency of hammering weak sides, so this thumping of Russia in front of Saakashvili was a satisfying match.
Worst: 17-13 vs Belgium (February 2013)
Although Georgia under Haig almost always win their ENC matches these days, it's fair to say they haven't always brought their A-game. Regularly over the past RWC cycle, Georgia have failed to fully stamp their authority over sides that are significantly weaker.
There are a few examples of this (see other mentions below), and it takes something to beat the near catastrophic final RWC match against Namibia where Georgia had dominated 70% territory, made 11 clean breaks and beat 50 (that's right 50) defenders in the match yet ended up with a one point win.
But the nadir of Milton Haig's first four years in charge came during what was a pretty miserable run of form over the 2012/13 season, as Georgia struggled to beat Belgium, the newly promoted ENC side playing their first match since promotion.
Within 5 minutes, Georgia had allowed themselves to be wound up (another far from unfamiliar sight) by the scrappy, but enormously less talented Belgian team, that led to what was the biggest mass brawl international rugby has seen in some years.
Fortunately for Georgia, there was so much going on in that brawl and with no TMO the officials just handed out a red to each side, but really they were actually really quite lucky not to lose more than one player from that bust up.
What followed that was a horrific disjointed, error filled performance from the Lelos, and played out on a mucky, muddy pitch to continue the theme of resembling a throwback to some 1980s French winter rugby.
Georgia had begun the match refusing to take penalties in expectation of the a thrashing, yet were 13-3 down at half time after a try from scrum half Julien Berger, where Beka Tsiklauri at full back just fell over in front of him in last line of defence. And although towards it the end it felt inevitable Georgian pressure would eventually get the win, Belgium were still leading 13-10 as the clock passed 70 minutes.
If Belgium had managed to hold on, this would have ranked up on the same level as Japan vs South Africa as one of the biggest upsets in recent international rugby.
In the past when Georgia have dropped ENC games they often may not have fielded their full strength side (like for instance their most recent loss vs Spain 2012), but this wasn't a second string side, it was full strength with the big names of Top 14 rugby all there.
In fact, nearly every player involved in this game was still part of the team that went to the RWC two and a half years later (although the match did bring to an end Merab Kvirikashvili's time in the fly half jersey after a complete horror show performance). Things went back more to what was expected afterwards, as Georgia finally got back into shape and gained RWC qualification from the ENC unbeaten, whilst Belgium didn't end up winning any games and were relegated.
Other mentions:
23-13 vs Spain (June 2014) - One of genuinely worst second halves of rugby seen between a second string Georgian side and an even further weakened Spain side.
17-16 vs Namibia (October 2015) - Spluttering to a one point win over a side Georgia utterly dominated, this game shouldn't have even been remotely close and was their worst RWC match.
12-45 vs Emerging Ireland (June 2015) - Not a full strength team out as per usual in Tbilisi Cup, but still a match where the poor fitness of the side was completely exposed.
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