- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
First, a toast to Georgia in the Caucasus, to the land where the toast (and the wine with which the toast is made) was invented.
A toast to this cradle of grapes and clay; crossroads of history’s waves and dance. To a beautiful and hard people, to Sakartvelo (the local name for Georgia), to blessed peace (gamarjoba) in a place stained by blood and war, home of the deepest caves and highest mountains in Europe, to sport and festival in heart and body, and the deepest respect to this old and rugged civilisation with less than four million people but now 11th in the world in rugby and a worthy first opponent of Australia. Invaded by everyone but never fully conquered by anyone.
Everything in Georgia is closely related to another thing in Georgia.
The nickname of the team, the Lelos, is drawn from an ancient folk sport called Lelo Burti, in which villages do battle over a 16 or 17-kilogram leather ball stitched and sewn together on match day to encapsulate wine-soaked dirt and sawdust.
The “try” is scored when the ball is shoved down into a preordained (by an Orthodox priest) stream or culvert or ditch, after which all who can still walk from both teams go to a cemetery light a fire and toast those who died playing Lelo Burti in years before, aged and almost fossilized balls from prior matches strewn about the gravestones and rendered part of the ancient ritual.
Here is the rub: the match is not staged on a pleasant field of grass. Two teams without distinguishing uniforms, packed with their villages’ biggest and best wrestlers, skirmish over hedges, drains, roads, orchards, fences, and ditches. There is no touchline. It has gone all night.
Rosters can include hundreds of men and has very few rules and no referee except a tipsy priest who throws the ball out to begin as another man fires a shotgun into the Easter sky, and then keeps drinking. Thus, personal honour and the weight of a century’s tradition are the only rules, which means it is a forever scrum, a maul without cards, guaranteed to break bones and infrastructure, and never finishes in a mere 80 minutes.
Georgian players perform the national anthem during the Summer International test match between Georgia and USA at Mikheil Meskhi stadiumlast month. (Photo by Levan Verdzeuli/Getty Images)
Nobody has ever heard of a TMO and head contact is the actual point: the only way to dislodge the ball.
“There are no rules as such” is the common explanation; except be brave and be strong. The pregame entertainment is a fight between two men, just to get the juices flowing. Drinking is done even more before the match by the players than afterward.
The difficulty of dislodging the ball is matched by how hard it is to even know where the ball is. Not one player will ever back down; he risks shaming his entire village and family.
The giant melee crashes into shops, breaks walls, and results in deaths which are sacralized forever. Shoes are ripped off, shirts are gone quickly, sweat replaces wine as the lubricating force, and even the strongest men become dizzy, intoxicated by the length of the struggle, and the glory of the battle.
So, we have no need to answer the rhetorical question: will the underdog Lelos play hard?
No other country has a local sport so closely related to scrummaging and mauling than Georgia. Lelo Burti was granted status as a “nonmaterial monument” of culture five years ago by the Georgian government; their doggedness in a giant scrum a defining national trait. It is said the sport fits the character of a Georgian man, always ready for battle. In the 12th century Georgian epic poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, the characters play Lelo Burti.
If they could have 50 scrums a game, they might be playing the Springboks in a final.
During the Soviet era, Lelo Burti gained rules for a time: only 15 players per side, five seconds per carry, and a time limit (one hour). Ironically, the taming of this wild sport directly led to Georgia’s success in rugby. During the 1980s, Zimbabwe toured Georgia and hosted the Lelos in return. The improvement from then to now, with Georgia beating Wales, outranking Italy, knocking on the door of the top ten is surely built on how closely their national sport mirrors rugby.
In the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Georgia beat Namibia 30-0 and lost only 10-14 to Ireland. In 2011, the Lelos lost to Scotland by only nine points, led Argentina at halftime before succumbing, and beat Romania 25-9. In 2015, they beat Tonga and Namibia, securing 2019 qualification.
Their disappointing showing in Japan (only beating Uruguay) included an 8-27 loss to the Wallabies at Shizuoka Stadium, in their maiden meeting. A wiggling try by Nic White, a card for Isa Naisarani, three lineout steals by Izack Rodda, and two late Wallaby tries (a maul and a Will Genia dive) sent Australia through to the quarters.
The second meeting of Lelos and Wallabies will take place on Sunday (AEST), in Paris.
But what of current form?
Scotland put Georgia to the sword in the second half at Murrayfield last weekend, scoring five tries, but the score at halftime was 6-0 Georgia, who tackled themselves into oblivion, won the scrum battle, lost the lineout war, and ended up having no answer for the 200 metrEs run by Kyle Steyn and Duhan van der Merwe. The implication is clear for Australia: get it wide and do not get bogged down in Lelo Burti.
The zest with which flankers Mikheil Gachechiladze and Luka Ivanishvili, centres Merab Sharikadze (Georgia’s captain) and Demur Tapladze, and talented No. 8 Tornike Jalagonia made 15 or more tackles each shows the Lelos’ fighting spirit, but they will have an athletic disadvantage against Marika Koroibete, Samu Kerevi, and ‘I’ll see your mouthful of a name and raise you’ Mark Nawaqanitawase, if they can be spared.
Before that, Georgia had beaten the USA 22-7, Romania 56-6, Portugal 38-11, Spain 41-3, the Netherlands 40-8, Germany 75-12, and on 19 November of last year, taken their famous 13-12 win over Wales in Cardiff, a week after losing 19-20 to Samoa.
But earlier in 2022, the Lelos beat Italy 28-19. They are no fluke.
The historic win over the Welsh was fittingly won by a scrum penalty, converted by Luka Matkava, after starting flyhalf Tedo Abzhandadze had missed a prior chance to win it.
Georgia celebrate their 2022 win over Wales. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
Georgia’s players ply their trade in Georgia (in the Super Cup), as well as the Currie Cup, in the UK, Ireland, and all parts in between. They will have a deep familiarity with France, courtesy of how many of the Lelos play there for clubs: Guram Gogichashvili plays for Racing 92, Sergo Abramashvili for Stade France, Guram Papidze and Beka Gorgadze for Po, Aleksandre Kuntelia for La Rochelle, Kote Mikoutadze for Bayonne, Davit Niniashvili and Beka Saghinadze for Lyon, and Vasil Lobzanidze for Brive.
The issue for Georgia will be a speed and size gap, with Eddie Jones able and willing to field a 950 kg pack and big backs with sprinter speed, exacerbated by the Wallabies’ pedigree of playing New Zealand more than anyone else does, and enough against South Africa to be scrum ready.
But it will not be the size of the fight in the Lelos that leads to their downfall.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.