Georgia claimed their first-ever World Cup victory as they defeated Namibia in wet conditions in Lens.

Merab Kvirikashvili landed two penalties and converted Akvsenti Guiorgadze’s try to put the Lelos 13-0 up at the break.

Kvirikashvili then kicked a third penalty and a conversion after Irakli Machkhaneli engineered a fine solo try.

The Georgians added a third converted try when Davit Kacharava intercepted and raced clear at the death.

Georgia won the inaugural meeting between the two sides 26-18 in June and they had the upper hand from the first whistle in northern France on Wednesday night.

Namibia, in the south west of Africa, is generally hot and dry and their national side had reportedly not played in the rain for over 30 years.

Georgia looked more comfortable from the start and they opened the scoring in the seventh minute after inside centre Irakli Giorgadze burst through the Namibian midfield.

Namibia infringed at the resulting ruck and fly-half Kvirikashvili, who plays for French second division side Pau, landed the penalty.

Namibia were struggling to get into the game and when they failed to find touch Malkhaz Urjukashvili counter attacked and took Georgia deep into Namibia territory.

After a couple of phases they moved the ball to Kvirikashvili but his grubber kick between the posts ran dead before any of the Georgian chasers could get to it.

The fly-half missed a second penalty after 23 minutes but two minutes later he was on target to give them a 6-0 lead.

Georgia rarely looked threatened but right winger Giorgi Shkinin’s inability to cope with any ball kicked at him was proving a handicap.

When he dropped his third kick in a row it put the Eastern Europeans in deep trouble and they conceded a penalty for holding on at a ruck.

It was the first time Namibia had had a sniff of any points but fly-half Tertius Losper pushed his kick wide.

Georgia were soon back on the attack and they took a decisive grip on the game when hooker Guiorgadze drilled his way over from close range after a pulverising drive by the Lelos pack.

Kvirikashvili converted to give Georgia a commanding 13-0 lead at the break and although he missed a penalty early in the second half they continued to dominate both territory and possession.

It took Namibia 20 minutes to get out of their half but their brief flurry came to nothing as they become just the fourth team – after England, Romania and Scotland – to fail to trouble the scorers in the tournament.

A third penalty from Kvirikashvili put Georgia 16-0 ahead and he added the conversion after Machkhaneli scored a superb solo try.

The powerful Georgia left wing hit Namibia full-back Heini Bock with a thunderous tackle before picking up the loose ball and racing clear to score under the posts.

Namibia tried to end the match on a high but their adventure played into the hands of outside centre Kacharava, whose interception try ensured they would be dancing in the streets of Tblisi.

Georgia coach Malkhaz Cheishvili has made eight changes to his starting line-up as his side chase their first World Cup victory.Scrum-half Irakli Abuseridze is captain following the retirement of lock Ilia Zedginidze with a knee injury.

Namibia skipper Kees Lensing returns to the front row after a toe injury.

Jacques Nieuwenhuis, sent off for a high tackle on France’s Sebastien Chabal, has completed a one-match ban and is named at blind-side flanker.

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Georgia: M Urjukashvili; I Machkhaneli, D Kacharava, I Giorgadze, G Shkininl; M Kvirikashvili, I Abuseridze (c); G Shvelidze, A Giorgadze, D Zirakashvili, L Datunashvili, M Gorgodze, G Labadze, R Urushadze, G Chkhaidze.
Replacements: D Khinchagashvili, A Kopaliani, V Didebulidze, B Udesiani, B Samkharadze, R Gigauri, B Khamashuridze.

Namibia: H Bock; R Witbooi, P van Zyl, C Powell, B Langenhoven; T Losper, E Jantjies; K Lensing (captain), H Horn, M Visser, W Kazombiaze, H Senekal, J Nieuwenhuis, J Burger, T du Plessis.
Replacements: J Meyer, J Redelinghuys, J du Toit, N Esterhuize, J van Tonder, M Africa, M Schreuder.

Below-par Ireland had to fight all the way to get a narrow victory over a determined Georgia in Bordeaux.The anxious Irish had to withstand late pressure as they clung on for the win and there must be doubts over their chances of reaching the quarter-finals.

Ireland did get a decent start with Ulster hooker Rory Best scoring a try but Georgia led early in the second half after a try by Giorgi Shkinin.

Girvan Dempsey got over to restore the Irish lead in the 55th minute.

Ireland may well be relieved to have scraped through but their lack of form is bound to be a huge worry for coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

Now they have to focus on upping their performance as they next face hosts France who have to win.

Things had been going to plan for Ireland when they got the first try of the match on 16 minutes after the pack took a line-out catch and drove through the heart of the Georgian forwards.

Ulster hooker Best got over and Ronan O’Gara landed a tough conversion.

Late in the first half a powerful charge from Shkinin swept Georgia out of their own half and when openside David Wallace had been sin-binned for killing the ball, Merab Kvirikashvili stepped up to slot the three points.

Georgia stunned the Stade Chaban-Delmas by taking the lead five minutes into the second half.

A wayward looping pass from Peter Stringer to Brian O’Driscoll was intercepted by Shkinin and the Blois winger galloped home under the posts with Kvirikashvili landing the conversion.

Ireland’s anxiety was eased when they ran in their second try in the 55th minute.

Gordon D’Arcy did the initial damage with a strong run through midfield before the ball was recycled to Dempsey on the left and he evaded Samkharadze’s tackle to get over.

Georgia finished strongly, keeping possession and pounding away in the opposition half.

The stadium was on tenterhooks when Denis Leamy denied Georgia late on, with referee Wayne Barnes seeking confirmation from the video referee that the ball had been held up.

Georgia had thrown everything at Ireland and spent the dying moments charging forward, but could not produce the winning score.

Georgia’s punishing schedule has prompted coach Malkhaz Cheishvili to make 11 changes for Saturday’s Pool D clash with Ireland.

Auch lock Ilia Zedginidze leads the side and is one of only four survivors from the team which troubled Argentina before succumbing to a 33-3 defeat on Tuesday night.

 
Zedginidze continues his second row partnership with Mamuka Gorgodze, the Montpellier forward who will be winning his 25th cap at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Massy’s Giorgi Chkhaidze resumes his back row duties, although he has been switched from blindside flanker to number eight.

Pau fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili, who impressed against the Pumas, is the only threequarter to have retained his place in the team.

Georgia are being hampered by a fixture list that demands they face two of the world’s top six teams within five days.

The Irish, who sit seven places higher in the world rankings, complete a gruelling programme that Cheishvili has confirmed shaped his team selection.

“The schedule is very uncomfortable for us and we didn’t choose it,” he said.

“But we have prepared for this by planning to use our squad as much as possible.

“It’s difficult but there is nothing we can do about it, we have to face the challenge.

“We don’t see it like the bigger teams get treated better than the smaller ones, it’s just the way it.”

Georgia: Otar Barkalaia, Giorgi Elizbarashvili, Revaz Gigauri, Davit Kacharava, Giorgi Shkinin, Merab Kvirikashvili, Bidzina Samkharadze; Mamuka Magrakvelidze, Goderdzi Shvelidze, Avtandil Kopaliani, Ilia Zedginidze (captain), Mamuka Gorgodze, Ilia Maisuradze, Rati Urushadze, Giorgi Chkhaidze.

Replacements: Akvsenti Giorgadze, David Khinchagashvili, Levan Datunashvili, Zviad Maisuradze, Irakli Abuseridze, Malkhaz Urjukashvili, Otar Eloshvili.
 

Argentina ground out a rugged 33-3 victory over Georgia in Lyon on Tuesday, patiently eroding spirited resistance from their opposition to notch the win, iced with a bonus-point in the final minute.

The Pumas have something of an inferiority complex when it comes to their standing on the world stage, but on Tuesday they looked like fully paid-up members of the Six Nations club. In other words, they struggled to put away a minnow that thought itself a piranha.

But unlike their ‘illustrious’ European peers, the Pumas managed to extract themselves from the mire of a 6-3 lead at the break by absorbing the pressure, keeping cool and tweaking tactics.

Argentina coach Marcelo Loffreda had expressed his disappointment at the schedulers who handed them two games in the space of five days, and France’s conquerors did look decidedly flat in the early stages of the game.

Argentina captain Agustín Pichot, who was down to start the game, gave way to Nicolás Fernández Miranda at the eleventh hour in a vivid illustration of the difficulties that a short turnaround can cause a team. The Stade Français star strained a muscle in his right leg in the clash with the French, and decided not to risk the game at Stade Gerland.

But blaming fatigue on Argentina’s early woes would be disingenuous. The giant Georgian forwards, coupled with the big boot of fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili, caused the Pumas all sorts of problems, and their defence gobbled up serving after serving of Argentine beef. Meanwhile, their unheralded backline seemed almost immune to the spells cast by Juan Martín Hernández and Felipe Contepomi.

Georgia took a leaf out of Argentina’s book by exploding into the tournament, forcing the South Americans to spill the kick-off. A red tide swept the Pumas backwards and they were rewarded for their efforts with a penalty for off-side and Kvirikashvili stepped up to claim the first points of the evening – much to the delight of the crowd, whose chants of Allez les rouges rang through the night air.

Felipe Contepomi replied moments later with a penalty of his own and Argentina, slowly but surely, gradually started to assert their authority on proceedings.

Yet with little luck to be had out wide, the Pumas decided to tunnel for the line. But a huge multi-phased attack of mauling came to nought and only served to inspire the Georgians and the neutrals in the crowd.

It is to the immense credit to the Lelos that the scoreboard attendant’s third and final task of the half did not come until the 35th minute – and it was only to add three more points to Contepomi’s account for a rare Georgian infringement.

A lovely move through the hands on the brink of the break seemed to convince the Pumas that the answer to their problems lay out wide, and the lock was finally broken early in the second half after Hernández and Contepomi both wriggled through half-gaps before sending Lucas Borges over the line for the first try of the game.

Georgia subsequently attempted to spread their own wings, but their good intentions weren’t quite commensurate with their skill levels. The Pumas pounced on a spilt ball in midfield and Borges was soon across the whitewash for his second.

So the Pumas had two tries in the bag and two more to score in 20 minutes against tiring opponents for that all-important bonus point. Easy, right? Don’t you believe it – the Georgians picked up their game yet again and laid siege to the Argentine lines, turning over ball and chasing down long grubbers with speed and purpose.

The Pumas absorbed the pressure and Georgia finally began to fade as the minutes ticked down to single figures. A rare missed tackle then allowed Patricio Albacete through for an easy try and the hunt for that bonus point was afoot.

Argentina attacked and attacked again, but the brave Georgians hung on as if they were protecting a slender lead.

But Hernández’s clever pass out of a double-tackle opened the door to Federico Martín Aramburu, and the wing bagged that vital fifth point with the last move of the game. So Argentina take the spoils, but the honours – in the true sense of the word – go to the Lelos.