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Georgia star Tedo Abzhandadze to swap French clubs after early release

Tedo Abzhandadze of Georgia looks on to the scrum during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Georgia and Portugal at Stadium de Toulouse on September 23, 2023 in Toulouse, France. (Photo by Levan Verdzeuli/Getty Images)

It is a done deal. Tedo Abzhandadze will move to Stade Aurillacois Cantal Auvergne, joining his fellow Georgian teammates Luka Nioradze, Lasha Mchelidze, Mikheil Alania, and a few others, by signing a contract with the Pro D2 team for the next two seasons.

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The fly-half had his first spell abroad in 2017 when he played for Terenure College RFC U20s in Ireland, returning to his home club of Aia Kutaisi before signing with CA Brive in the summer of 2019, where he achieved JIFF status.

While at Brive, Abzhandadze’s first game was against Stade Français in the EPCR Challenge Cup, but would only be called up for 26 games over the course of three seasons, exiting in the summer of 2022, taking a step back and signing with the historical US Montauban.

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His contract was set to expire in 2025, but the club have allowed Abzhandadze to leave one year earlier, after only playing a mere 18 games out of 60.

He made his international debut in November of 2018, racking up ten points to help the Lelos beat Tonga in Tbilisi.

Fixture
Internationals
Georgia
12 - 21
Full-time
Fiji
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He has already played in two Rugby World Cups and has added 52 caps to his name, scoring 339 points in his tenure for the Lelos setup, helping his country to memorable victories over Italy and Wales.

Aurillac have been scouting a new fly-half with Antoine Aucagne’s departure at the end of the season, as the prolific kicker will join the Top 14’s USA Perpignan, and Abzhandadze was the one chosen to take up the mantle.

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The 24-year-old will prolong his stay in France, hoping to regain his starting spot in the Lelos setup before the next Rugby World Cup, as he faces intense competition from wonderkid Luka Matkava, who might also be heading to the Pro D2.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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